Transfer Day

Today is transfer day. Today we transfer an embryo (blastocyst) and pray that it attaches to my uterus, and grows into a healthy full term baby. We are excited, nervous, and afraid to be excited “just in case it doesn’t work.” But we have come this far in our journey to extend our family, and today is a huge step. I pray that we would find joy throughout the process, peace of mind, and renewed hope.

Our shirts say, “May the odds be ever in our favor.” It’s a quote easily recognized from the Hunger Games series, which we read and of course watched together. This journey has been tough, our own hunger games of sorts; after two egg retrievals, 31 eggs, 22 fertilized, 10 blastocysts (embryos), only three were considered normal, or transferable. The number drop in IVF has been pretty drastic. We are praying that the odds would be in our favor at this phase of transferring the embryo.

In the series, Katniss Everdeen becomes the Mockingjay—a symbol of hope for the people. Suzanne Collins also wrote, “Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.” The embryos we have are our mockingjays, our tangible elements of the hope the Lord has blessed us with as He is our hope and our provider of hope.

It’s a scary step to share with others about this process, especially if we end up losing the embryo or baby,  but we could use the prayer support in any circumstance.

Our entire journey has been long, difficult, and oftentimes painful, but we have never lost sight of who God is.

Psalm 47 says:

“Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. For the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth. He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet. He chose our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loved. God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets. Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise. God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham, for the kings of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.”

Today we are singing praises because He is awesome. Yesterday, we sang praises because He is awesome. He is awesome in the storm and awesome in the calm. May God be exalted in everything we do.