2019 Recap + 2020 Goals

2019 was a pretty darn good year for us. We have felt so supported through this year and have seen so many miracles and blessings that we just could not be more grateful for.

In January we announced that we would be doing IVF this year and had so many friends and family members help us spread the word about our IVF Mini Photo Session Fundraiser. We felt so, so loved and so supported in every sense of the word.

In February, we began our first round of IVF. It was such a neat experience for me. I administered the first portion of shots by myself and for some reason that was really empowering. We were lucky enough to be a part of a clinical study for an IVF medication for a follicle stimulator and thankfully, we didn’t get the placebo. I spent a lot of February at the Fertility Clinic having lots of ultrasounds and lots of blood draws.

March was a really big month for us. We had our Egg Retrieval in March. The follicle stimulator medication worked really great because we had 63 eggs retrieved. (wide eye emoji) 47 of those eggs ended up being fertilized and we finished with 11 cutie embryos on ice. We had to wait a month for our Frozen Embryo Transfer so April was just basically a waiting game.

In May, we had our Frozen Embryo Transfer. One thing the doctor that performed our FET said while we were in the room getting ready for it was, “This is the most important thing we will do all day.” I’ve thought about that sentence so many times since then and I’m so grateful that she took our FET so seriously and helped make it special for us, even though it was something she does all the time. 10 days later, we received a phone call that would change our lives. We found out that we were pregnant with our sweet miracle IVF baby! We found out together as we listened to a voicemail that our clinic left us, in the parking lot of Parker’s work. We celebrated and danced in the car together and said a quick prayer of gratitude and then continued with our day. It was so surreal.

In June we told our families about our sweet babe on the way and it was so fun to finally have our secret out in the open a little more. We told the rest of the world about Baby Banks in August.

The last few months have kind of flown by with little pockets of insanity here and there trying to keep our baby girl in until her due date. But we’re chugging along and are so excited for this year to come to a close because that means we are closer to meeting our baby girl!

This month (December), we had the opportunity to go donate at the Giving Machines and as we were standing in line, trying to decide what we would donate to, we were both overcome with emotion because we realized how blessed we truly are. We aren’t the richest people in the world monetarily, but we feel very richly blessed in every other sense of the word.

Honestly, 2019 has been a range of emotions. We’ve had so many wonderful, wonderful moments and a few pretty low, lows. But overall, we are so grateful for everything this year has brought us and we are so excited for what 2020 has in store!

I’ve been thinking about my 2020 goals for a while now because it almost seems silly to set goals with a new baby on the way, but I can’t not. So I’m going to share a few of the goals that I have set for 2020 with you! (p.s. these are in no particular order)

1. Read the entire Book of Mormon and follow the Come, Follow Me curriculum in my personal study.

2. Launch 6-8 new Good Grief Journals! (VERY excited about this one!!!)

3. Take care of myself and my mental health by going to therapy and yoga (when I am able to)

That’s currently all I’ve got for now and I’m pretty happy with these goals. Parker and I have set a few goals for our family and they are:

1. Work on lessening our debt and start working towards saving for a house.

2. Have fun & go out— even with a baby.

3. Keep ourselves and our baby girl alive.

And that’s it. The bar for 2020 is kind of low, but we feel like it will be a fantastic year and we cannot wait for it.! We hope that you have had a wonderful year and that you will be able to achieve your goals in 2020!