Reflections

I saw this on a friend's blog a couple of weeks ago and decided to do it myself. I'm to give an account of what I was doing 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 3 years ago, etc.

20 years ago: I was 16 years old in my junior year of high school at Capitol Christian Academy in MD. This was my last year of HS as I started college the next fall. Aside from school I was taking piano and flute lessons (maybe also guitar lessons...I don't remember exactly when I took those although I do remember it was the next year that I took organ lessons), babysitting a LOT (especially my youth pastor's children who are now college students), and involved with my church youth group. I was also a serious bookworm.

10 years ago: I was 26 years old and starting my 3rd year as the principal of Cressona Christian School. I lived alone in a 2 bedroom apartment. Paul and I had been dating for about 18 months, and he was in his second semester at PSU working on his bachelor's degree. I had just started working on my doctorate.

5 years ago: I had just finished my 7th year as principal and begun my 2nd semester teaching in the Elementary Education department at Kutztown University. Paul and I had been married for 2 years and ttc for over a year. I had tried various fertility meds with my Gyn that summer and had just switched to my first RE. We were living in a house I had purchased 18 months earlier. Paul was working for his dad while taking classes PT to finish his Bachelor's degree in math.

3 years ago: In July 2005 I had my first miscarriage. That pregnancy was from inj/iui. I had another inj/iui which was unsuccessful and at this time in 2005 I was gearing up for inj #6 and iui #4 which I had in November 2005. We had also been pursuing domestic newborn adoption for almost a year as we began that in November 2004. I was starting my 2nd year teaching at the university where I am now. We had been living in our second home for 15 months. I also was singing in the church choir, a member of ladies Bible study, and playing in the church's handbell choir. Paul was working FT for his dad's company.

1 year ago: In July 2007 our dossier expired in Ukraine before it was submitted to the SDA, and we decided not to update it. We also only had a few months left of our 3 year contract with Lifetime Adoption. So we had signed a contract with Adoption Consultants and began the ivf process. In October 2007 I was having daily shots to get ready for a frozen embryo transfer of one blastocyst (Nadia!) because we had lost the other 6 embryos in August. I was also busy applying for tenure and promotion at my university. Paul was in his second year of his Master's degree program in chemistry.

Yesterday: I left for school at 6:45am and returned at 9:45 then I took care of Nadia and worked on my Bible study lessons and replied to seemingly 5 million work emails before heading to church for handbell rehearsal. I went to bed shortly after I got home as I was exhausted from not getting much sleep the previous night.

Today: Nadia and I went to ladies Bible study this morning (left around 8:30am and got home at about noon). It was my first time attending since I had her, and when I walked in the leader announced that a miracle had just come in the room. Yes, Nadia, who is 15 weeks old today, is a little miracle! Around 3:00 I will leave for work and will get home around 8:00 and will probably go to bed at 9:00.

Tomorrow: I'll teach tomorrow morning, but then I'll be home the rest of the day (yippee!). I would like to get caught up on writing thank you notes, and if Nadia takes a nap in her crib at some point during the day then I'd like to get some work done outside as far as trimming shrubs, pulling weeds, etc. I also need to cook something for dinner as tonight Paul will finish up the beef stew I made on Sunday.