It's been a while since I written anything. Things got very busy around the holidays. Christmas this year was very much like Christmas last year, and that is not a good thing. Alison was not sick, this year, but we had another death in the family. Last year it was my grandfather, this year it was Kevin's father. The good thing is that he is no longer suffering, and he passed on before the suffering got too bad.

My father-in-law's death made the week after Christmas quite crazy for us. We were already timing for our last embryo transfer and had to be home by Wednesday night, for the procedure on Thursday. Despite the fact that my FIL wanted to be cremated (and he was) the family decided to have the memorial service right away, to get it over with instead of dragging things out for weeks. The memorial was Tuesday afternoon. That gave the family coming in from Maine/Connecticut time to get there (and us too) and also gave us time to get home for our transfer.

The service was very nice. There were a lot of people there. By the time the service actually started I think it was standing room only. It was a little awkward for Kevin and his (older) younger brother, because they did not live or grow up in that town (Kevin is 9 and 11 years older than his half-sibs), so they didn't know a whole lot of people. The minister did a very nice job. He tried to get people to stand up and speak, to relay their memories or tell funny stories, but no one did, at first. He went on with his "sermon" and opened the floor up again when he was done. At that point, Kevin's cousin got up to speak, and that gave Kevin and his brother the encouragement the needed to get up and say something, too. It was good for my BIL, because, not having expected it to affect him at all, he was having a hard time dealing with how much it really did affect him.

I felt like we spent most of that week in the car. Instead of coming home, which would have been pointless, we stayed at my parents' for an extra night and left for Virginia Monday morning. We stayed there until Tuesday evening and then hopped back in the car and drove to my aunt and uncle's in Maryland and spent the night there. The next morning it was back in the car and back to my parents' to pick up all the stuff we had left there, like our Christmas presents and our dog! We spent the afternoon there so that Alison actually had a chance to lay down and take a good nap instead of trying to sleep in the car, which she doesn't do very well. Then we got back in the car again and headed for home. Then Kevin and I had to drive down to near Detroit and back on Thursday.

As for the embryo transfer, it went as well as it could have. The doctor told us we had two "beautiful embryos." They both survived the thaw and did exactly what they were supposed to, as far as being ready to transfer. We won't find out until later this week if they did what they were supposed to, as far as sticking around to become a baby or not. I'm waffling back and forth between thinking it might have worked and being sure it didn't. Today I'm in the "I'm sure it didn't" camp. One thing I know for sure is that, either way, I'm getting my tubes tied. I can't afford to keep buying prescription folic acid supplements, and we can't afford to risk accidentally getting pregnant if I'm not taking the extra folic acid. Kevin would be willing to get the big snip, but this way, if we ever have the money again, we could still have the option of trying in vitro again.