Surfacing

I’m sorry it’s been so long – there are so many reasons for that; so many good reasons for that.

First of all, I’m doing really well – emotionally. Berilac and I have been really setting our relationship with the Lord as a priority and we’re making time for prayer and devotions and it’s been encouraging and uplifting. Berilac and I have also re-dedicated ourselves to working on our relationship. In the past it’s been scary for me to really work on our relationship because it brings up so many deep, dark, scary topics – but these days I’m really feeling up to facing those. As I’ve mentioned before I’ve been going to a support group on a regular basis and I’m starting one at my church – these types of relationships are so supportive! I’ve had women who go to my church, (whom I’ve never met!) read my blog and reach out to me. In general, I’ve had women to come in contact with about our stuggles. I’ve been going to counseling and I’ve had a homework assignment that is challenging my anxiety roots. I’ve been learning (and practicing) the many stress reduction techniques that the one support group has taught me. I’ve been walking regularly, enjoying the beautiful weather, and eating healthfully. All these things have stolen time away from me being on the computer – so really life’s can’t be that bad, right?

Secondly, I’ve just been really busy. For the past nine months I’ve been a coordinator for a community wide Easter event – The HUNT.

Our church partnered with two other churches, the city, the police department, & the fire department to bring the community a FREE Easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter (Saturday, March 22 2008). My involvement in that event is represented in hundreds of hours of meetings, documentation, planning, budgeting, supply shopping, marketing, volunteer gathering and training, media correspondence, sign creation, and general errand running over a nine month period; the closer the event got, the more busy I became - I went to bed at 2AM the entire week leading up to the event (and usually I’m an old lady when it comes to bed time, 9-10P). Above is a picture of the 7-9 year old kids racing towards the egg scoop (rather than an egg hunt!)

We supplied:

• 4 age specific hunt zones
• 2 Easter bunnies
• 21,000 (that's not a misprint) candy stuffed Easter eggs
• 6,000 ground prizes
• 25 raffle prizes
• 1,500 consolation prizes
• 100 volunteers
• 21 corporate sponsors
• 225 dozen cookies
• 20 jugs of fruit punch
• 4 face painting stations
• 4 Easter craft stations
• 2 tatoo stations
• 1 local children’s music celebrity
• 1 Easter Bunny Pic booth
• and 1 gigantic bouncy house

For over 3000 local community members

… and all for “free” (well we had a budget – but to the participants it was free!) That day I was supposed to go to an all day infertility retreat with Berilac, but instead I decided to stick with my commitment and lead the teams at the HUNT event. I spent more than 12 hours on my feet, running around, with one of those cool walkie-talkies on, to support a 2 ½ hour event! I was SURROUNDED by infants, toddlers, and older children during the entire duration of the event. I can easily say that there was not a single moment that I had a thought about my losses and my struggles and the twinge of sadness that sometimes come when I’m surrounded by what I do not have.

By the end of the day my feet were THROBBING, I was exhausted, and my heart was blessed. I’m ready to sign up for next year! I thought it was a sacrifice missing my infertility support group – but really it was a blessing getting to serve at the community egg hunt. There were so many people there who couldn’t afford to give Easter to their children – the city that we did this in is a struggling bay area town – and I got to be a part of tangibly loving these community members with love in the form of a gift for their entire family. I had a very hard time communicating with many of the people I was welcoming – as I don’t speak Spanish – but I’m hoping the smile was loving enough.

Not only was The HUNT stealing my blog time – but my work has really picked up since March 3. We are doing a major software application upgrade and I’m a testing lead – so we are responsible for running nearly 200 tests to make sure the application is up to par come the August go-live timeframe.

Lastly, Berilac and I have made decisions about what’s next for us in our family building efforts. We have had a couple of pretty bad test results come back to us in the last couple of weeks – but our future plans lead towards the best steps we can take to combat our test results – so what more can we do? Nothing. So in my next post (which really should come soon) I'll tell you all about our plans.

Grateful that I even had these few minutes to give an update,
Polly