A few memories...

I wanted to post a few pictures today. These are the few memories that we have about our precious babies, and I'd like to share. Hope you all don't mind! I also wanted to say that we so much appreciate your outpouring of love toward us in this difficult time. Your prayers mean so much to us! Thank you, thank you!

Chris and I the day we found out we were pregnant (12/19/07)

Chris and I get a personalized ornament every year. I bought this one, and then wrapped it up and gave it to my mom and dad for their "anniversary." They didn't get to keep it, though! :-)

My parents didn't know about us going through in vitro fertilization, mostly because I wanted to surprise them. They arrived here on Saturday night (12/22). Their anniversary is 12/18 (celebrating 37 years!), and I hadn't sent them a card or anything. I couldn't wait for Christmas to tell them about the baby (especially since we had been pre-warned about the possibility of miscarriage.) So, I bought this little photo album and made a small scrapbook for them.
My parents love lighthouses, so I thought this was the perfect cover for them... especially since the bottom says "Life is filled with wonderful surprises..." This was the first page of the book... this pic was taken after the Christmas program 12/16.
These were the second and third pages. I think if you click on the pictures you can see them bigger. Anyway, these are both pictures of the embryos they transfered this time. The page on the left quotes our promise "Psalm 113:9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house, to be the joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD." The second page (which is difficult to see) says "Our baby's picture" and the little pregnant girl stamp says "You Grow, Girl!"
These pages are pictures from our doctors office. The one on the left is a picture of the sign in the dressing room. I think it's hilarious. On the right are our babies' doctors and the IVF nurse coordinator... Dr. Bastias (embryologist), Dr. Homm (fertility specialist) and Kara (IVF nurse).
These next few pages of pictures are some we took during the transfer process. I kind of combined pictures from both cycles.


I also have the pregnancy test from our second cycle. I was so nervous the morning we went in for the test (more nervous than I've ever been in my life, as a matter of fact), that I had to use the bathroom twice before we even got to the office. My urine was VERY diluted, and the pink line is SO faint that you almost can't see it. Our nurse practitioner told us it was no problem... as long as it was there, that's what mattered.

Oh, yeah... my parents opened their "anniversary" presents (we did video it, but can't seem to get the CD to work), and the look on my mom's face was priceless when she figured out what we were trying to tell them. She squealed and raised both her hands up over her head, and then started pounding my dad (who was sitting next to her) on the back! It was great! Of course, we had to tell them right away about the probability of miscarriage, but at the time, I was pregnant, and Chris had me on bedrest, so we chose to tell them anyway. I'm so glad we did.

God is good, and we are thankful for the little things. Lord willing, the promise we are claiming will be fulfilled shortly: Psalm 113:9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house, to be the joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD. :-)

Thanks for letting me share my memories. Though this is difficult, I'm glad God allowed us a few days with our babies.

Grieving...

THROUGH IT ALL, I CHOOSE TO SERVE THE SAVIOR
words by Randy Vader

Though the future seems uncertain, though the fear erodes my peace,

though the circumstance seems hopeless and the doubting will not cease,

I will claim what He has promised for my heart must recognize,

Mine is not to question, but keep focused on the prize...

Through it all, I choose to serve the Savior
Through it all, I claim Christ as my Friend,
Through it all, my faith will never waver,

Til He calls me home or comes again.

This path now set before me is not my route of choice,

Yet I must keep moving forward, listening to his still small voice.
Each step along this journey, He reminds me I'm His own
And through the cold dark loneliness I'm aware I'm not alone...

Through it all, I choose to serve the Savior

Through it all, I claim Christ as my Friend,

Through it all, my faith will never waver,
Til He calls me home or comes again.

TRUST HIS HEART
Carswell/Mason

All things work for our good - though sometimes we can't see how they could
Troubles that break our hearts in two, Sometimes blind us to the truth
Our Father knows what's best for us; His ways are not our own
So when your pathway grows dim, and you just can't see Him
Remember - you're never alone!

God is too wise to be mistaken, God is too good to be unkind,
So when you don't understand, and you don't see His plan,
When you can't trace His hand,
TRUST HIS HEART.

He sees the Master Plan; He holds the future in His hands.
So don't live as those who have no hope - All our hope is found in HIM
We see the present clearly, but He sees the first and the last
And like a tapestry, he's weaving you and me
To someday be JUST LIKE HIM.

God is too wise to be mistaken, God is too good to be unkind,
So when you don't understand, and you don't see His plan,
When you can't trace His hand,
TRUST HIS HEART.

As I sit here to write with tears in my eyes - These songs are bringing me so much comfort, and healing in my heart. Some of you that read this blog are familiar with what is going on, but many of you are not. I hesitated in posting this... but I believe that God wants to use this situation to honor and glorify HIM through me and my husband, and how can I do that if I keep this quiet?

As I write, I am grieving the loss of yet another set of two babies. Long story VERY short (I'll post more about all of this sometime in the future)... After almost 7&1/2 years of marriage and 4&1/2 years of praying that God would give us a baby (or two...), we found out on December 19th that we were pregnant! Again, condensing the story - we found out this summer that our chances of having a child of our own are pretty much non-existant (medically speaking) without some scientific help. Of course, we know that God is a God who loves to do the IMPOSSIBLE! However, through a series of advice from our pastor, a lot of prayer, and God opening the door, we chose to go down the road of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Our first IVF cycle was done in October. We have 9 babies... (since we believe life begins at conception.) In the first step of IVF, two of our embryos didn't survive, leaving us with 7. On October 5th, we had two embryos transfered into me. On October 18th, our pregnancy test was negative... two more of our precious babies were taken to Heaven at that point. Out of the remaining 5 embryos, 4 of them lived to the freezing stage (cryopreservation.) We went ahead with our second cycle, the transfer on December 7th. In the thawing process of IVF, we lost another baby. They were able to thaw out 2 embryos and transfer them into me. On Dec. 19, our pregnancy test and bloodwork indicated that I was, indeed, pregnant! Of course, we were ecstatic with the news!

On 12/21, my doctors repeated the lab work, just to make sure that the pregnancy was going well. In this bloodwork, they measure the HCG levels (which is the hormone that indicates pregnancy.) My first test, the count was 179. The second count on the 21st was 120. The HCG should have been INCREASING, not decreasing! The nurse practitioner called with the results and warned us that there was a high probability of miscarrying the babies. We took the warning very seriously; Chris put me on bed rest again until the next bloodwork was to be done. In the meantime, we just prayed and prayed, begging God for the lives of our little ones! (I was really praying for twins!) I didn't have any signs or symptoms of miscarriage (bleeding, etc.), so we were very hopeful yesterday when we redid the bloodwork.

At 2pm yesterday, our nurse practitioner called with the lab results. My HCG levels had dropped to 6 (anything under 10 is negative.) We lost our babies. Of course, I called Chris right away, and he rushed home from work to be with me. I've never had a pain like this in my heart... and we are grieving the loss of our precious babies. I honestly don't know how people that do not have a close relationship with Christ ever survive something like this... or any death for that matter! I am so thankful that I know the Lord as my personal Savior, and can run to Him in prayer, as well as read the comforting words that He placed in the Bible for us - for just times like these. I am so thankful that He is the God of all Comfort, that He has a plan for me, that His way is PERFECT, that His thoughts are higher than my thoughts, His ways than my ways! Though I don't understand (and may NEVER understand), I know that I can trust Him to do what is BEST for us! What a comforting thought that is... to know that since God chose not to give us THESE little ones - He must have something BETTER in store! It's kind of hard to imagine what that could possibly be, but I know that I can trust my Heavenly Father... because GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME, and I know HE loves ME more than I could EVER love my little ones. I know that they are up in Heaven with God right now, just waiting for us to join them someday. Chris says that they are all - all 8 of them - going to look like him! :-)

Thank you, also, to those of you who have e-mailed us. You have been a great encouragement to our hearts. Though I hate to inform all of you of bad news, it is encouraging to me to know that I am surrounded by believers that daily, sometimes constantly are lifting us up in prayer. "I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me." I couldn't handle going to work today, though, although I tried (I just couldn't stop crying.) I am planning to go back to work as normal on Monday, so you can pray for me in that as well. Pray that I can be a testimony to D's unsaved mom, and that I can be loving and patient with D. Also, pray that we again get to show the unsaved people with whom we work the grace that God gives through the trials that we face. Most importantly, though, pray that this refining fire that we are walking through right now will cause the imperfections in our lives to rise to the surface so that we can become more like Christ, as well as point others to HIM. After all, that is the true reason that we live.

Thanks for reading... I know I am not the only one who has struggles today. I'm not sure just why the Lord put it on my heart to share this today, but obviously there is someone out there in the blogosphere that needed to hear my story.

Oh, yes, one more thing. We do have one more chance with IVF... we still have one frozen embryo, and they will transfer just a single embryo. We're not sure yet when we will go forward with the next cycle... at this point we are just taking one day at a time. I'm guessing that it may not be for a while... we need time to grieve and heal emotionally, as well as giving my body time to regroup. (I have a very sore bum from LOTS of intramuscular injections!) Also, it is another major financial step, since we haven't met our insurance deductible or out-of-pocket expenses for the new year. Oh, well... again, God is very much aware of all these things, so we will just deal with today's pressures as they are here, and let tomorrow take care of itself.

We continue to claim OUR PROMISE: Psalm 113:9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house, to be the joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.

2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Hope you have a lovely day! :-)

Our first two babies that were transfered. These pictures were taken 3 days after fertilization... the first baby is only 8 cells, and the secone one 7 cells.

These are our second two babies at about 8 days after fertilization. They are somewhere around 80-100 cells each. The first embryo is actually hatching... which they need to do in order to implant into the uterine lining. I just think it's so cool that we have pictures of them... most women don't have any idea that they are pregnant at this point... and I have pictures of my babies! :-)

Merry CHRISTmas!!!

Thanks be unto God for His
UNSPEAKABLE GIFT!

(II Corinthians 9:15)

Don't forget the GREATEST GIFT we've ever received this Christmas... that Jesus Christ left Heaven to be born in a manger, to die on a cross, to rise from the dead, to live in Heaven forever giving us the gift of ETERNAL LIFE if we choose to accept His gift! I pray that you have accepted God's gift.

John 3:16 For GOD so LOVED the world, that he GAVE his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Merry CHRISTmas from Chris and Heather Mitchell! :-)

Pictures of family - Mitchell

Here are pics of Chris' side of the family. I tell you, I think we have the cutest nieces and nephews ever! :-) (on BOTH sides of the family!) I know, I know, I'm a little biased! But they are cute, don't you think?!?!?

Pictures of family - Chromy

Here are some recent pics of my family:

Christmas Letter 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry CHRISTmas! It's that time of year again, and we are so excited when we look back on the year and see what God has done for us this year. The Bible says in Psalm 72:18 "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who ONLY doeth WONDROUS things." Obviously, we, like everyone else, go through tough times in our lives, and we have this year as well. But when we look back, it is so awesome to see how God has been with us through the tough times as well as the great times. The Bible also says "As for God, his way is PERFECT." I'm so thankful that HE is in control of our lives, not me! It has been such an encouragement for us this year to be reminded of the fact that God loves us, cares about us, and ALWAYS does what is BEST for us. HE has a plan for our lives, and though we may not always understand what God is doing at the time, we can trust Him to only do WONDROUS things.

I'm going to share with you the every day things in our lives first, and then tell you about all the extra things that we were able to enjoy this year.

First of all, we moved here to attend our church, Shawnee Baptist. This year our opportunities for ministry at our church have expanded, and we are so thankful for those opportunities to reach others for Christ. Chris drives a bus route every Sunday morning to pick up kids and adults for Sunday school and church. I ride along to help with that as well. We also both sing in the choir, which we have really enjoyed, and I work in the nursery at least once a month. In September, our asst. pastor approached us about joining the teen ministry as youth workers. We were able to meet with the youth pastors in early October, and started our ministry with the teens the first week of November. Chris is co-teaching the 9th&10th grade teen Sunday school class and we are excited about working with teens again. We are enjoying getting to know the teens and the other youth workers as well.

As far as work is concerned, we are pretty much doing the same things we were doing last year at this time. This is the first year since we've been married that we have both worked for the same company the WHOLE YEAR! I continue to do nursing home health care with special needs kids. I have been caring for the same patient full-time for almost a year now, and almost feel like he's my own baby. He just turned 2, and is learning so much and doing new things almost every day. I have also had the privilege of witnessing some to his mom, other nurses that I have oriented to the case, and some of my unsaved co-workers in the staffing agency office.

Chris continues to work at Cross Chrysler/Jeep as a sales associate. God has truly blessed him this year in his job. He earned the award of Salesman of the Month 3 months this year - in January, March, and April. It was awesome to see him earn that award the first full month that he was working as a salesman. At the company Christmas party, it was announced that Chris had won the SALESMAN of the YEAR award as well! We know that all the glory goes to God for these accomplishments, but I must say that I am so thankful for a husband that is willing to work hard and put in long hours to take care of our family. The financial blessings have been nice, but Chris, too, has been able to witness to many of his co-workers over the past year. One day he had over an hour long conversation with one of his managers about Creation vs. Evolution, the Bible being God's Word, and various other spiritual topics. It is encouraging to be able to share God's Word with those that do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The other major thing that happened this year for us is that we were able, after 6 months of paying double housing costs, to sell our house in Maryland. We closed on that house on March 30. Then, the Lord led us to look for a house to buy here. We found one after going out with our realtor one time, and our offer was accepted. July 17th we moved into our new home, and we LOVE it! So, for yet another Christmas letter, we have a different address! This is an ongoing joke with Chris and me... hopefully we won't have to give you a new address again for a VERY LONG time!

Now - for the entertainment in our lives:

February – February 11th brought a new niece into our family... Korissa Ann was born to Chris' sister, Kim and her husband, David. Korissa is their first baby.

April - We flew down to Jacksonville, FL, for a Chromy family reunion/Mom's 60th birthday party over Easter weekend. We had a great time seeing all of my immediate family, though the time was short. We hadn't all been together at one time since Steve's wedding in 2005. The day after we got home, Chris surprised me by bringing home a new car for me. It's a 2007 Chrysler Sebring sedan, Inferno Red, and I LOVE IT! What a great surprise! :-)
Also in April, we attended a local celebration day here... Thunder over Louisville. This is the kick-off to the Kentucky Derby Festival which is the two weeks before the KY Derby. It is basically KY's version of Mardi Gras, but they do have some pretty neat events to attend. Thunder over Louisville consists of, among other things, a 6 hour air show, and at the end of the day, one of the largest fireworks displays in the world! It is AWESOME! The fireworks are actually choreographed to music, but we didn't sit in a place where we could actually hear the music. Anyway, it was a great time!

May - The first weekend of May is the KY Derby. Pretty much every business in this area is shut down that day b/c everyone is at the Derby. Chris had the day off, so we decided to take a day trip over to St. Louis, MO. (I know, I know - you can't BELIEVE that we didn't go to the DERBY! We don't gamble and we don't drink, so we didn't really want to spend the day around a bunch of people who were doing just that!) Instead, we enjoyed a great date together... we attended a St. Louis Cardinals game in early afternoon, then went over to see the St. Louis Gateway Arch, and were home by about 9pm. We are trying to attend a game at every Major League Baseball Park in the States, so we had a great day and checked off another ballpark on the list.
May was also a HUGE month of graduations for the Mitchell family. Chris' older brother, Tim, graduated with his 2nd Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. He earned a 4.0 GPA, along with being a husband and dad, working, and serving in his church. That's a full plate! Then, Chris' sister, Julianne, graduated with her Associate's Degree from Pensacola Christian College. She had a brain aneurysm when she was seven, so since then has always had struggles with her academics. We are so proud of her for her determination to graduate from college, and she did it! A couple days later, another of Chris' brothers, **name removed for privacy** graduated from Marine boot camp at Parris Island. We are so proud to have an immediate family member serving our country in the Marines. Then, later in the month, Chris' oldest niece, Kimberly, graduated from Kindergarten! Wow - what a busy month! Chris and I were only able to attend Julianne's graduation together; then Chris returned home to work, while I attended the Marine graduation with Chris' family.

June - We attended our first baseball game at Louisville Slugger Field. We have a minor league team here called the Louisville Bats, and Chris' boss has season tickets to the games. He gives away the tickets for free, so we were able to attend 3 games this season. Hey, what can I say? It's a pretty nice cheap Saturday evening date! :-) The big event in June was my baby brother, Nathan's wedding. He and Caroline got married on June 30th. It was a beautiful wedding. It was really nice to have all of the family together again for the second time in 3 months when we hadn't been together in almost 2 years!

July - On the way home from Nathan's wedding, we made a little detour through Cleveland Ohio to attend a Cleveland Indians game at Jacobs Field (another ballpark off the list!) The big even of July was our 7th Anniversary trip, which was a surprise for me. Chris planned the whole trip, and we had a GREAT time! We went to Chicago (Chris had never been there other than driving through, and I hadn't been there since my college days) for about 3 days. We stayed in a REALLY nice hotel (they had bellhops and everything!) right off Michigan Avenue across from the Hancock Building. While we were in town, we attended two more baseball games... one at Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs, and the other at US Cellular Field to watch the White Sox. I told Chris that he has the best wife in the world b/c she actually ENJOYED going to ballgames on her anniversary trip! :-) We also walked up and down Michigan Ave and the shoreline of Lake Michigan, visited the Shedd Aquarium and Navy Pier, and generally just relaxed and enjoyed the time together. It was a great surprise, and it was over WAY too quickly!

August - August 10th brought another new niece into the family... again on Chris' side! Jacquline Abigail was born to Chris' brother, Burt and his wife, Julie. Jacquline is their first baby as well. We are always excited to have another member join the family!
We didn't actually take any trips in August! We stayed home to work to pay off all of our gallivanting that we did all summer! We both celebrated birthdays... our birthdays are only a week apart. I turned the big 30 this year, but I don't mind at all. We had an open house/Chris' birthday party on his birthday, and also had a fun surprise as some friends of ours were traveling through town and took us out to lunch. We hadn't seen these friends in about a year. Then, the Thursday before my birthday, one of my patients that I took care of in MD and his family were in the area visiting family, and they came over and spent the afternoon visiting us. It was fun to see them again.

September - According to Chris, this was the best month of all! First of all, I was able to attend our Ladies' Retreat at the camp sponsored by our church. It was a great time of fun and fellowship. But - the weekend of the 15th, we made a VERY QUICK weekend trip to Boston. As most of you know, Chris grew up just outside of Boston until he was 12, so this is his "hometown." He is a die hard Boston sports fan. He decided that we couldn't go to Wrigley Field for a game and not go to Fenway Park! We got tickets to the second game of the last NY Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox series of the season. We had a BLAST at the game! It was the best crowd of fans at any game or ballpark I've ever been to! They were cheering the WHOLE TIME! Of course, I might be slightly biased by my husband's brainwashing... but it was really cool! In the morning before the game, we took a quick tour of Boston, seeing most of the historical sites... Freedom Trail, Quincy Market, Paul Revere's House, the Old North Church, the USS Constitution, etc. We packed a lot of things into a short amount of time, but again, it was great to have the time together and making memories!

October - We found out in late October that there will be another niece or nephew joining the family this next year (Lord willing)... My older brother, Steve, and his wife, Kathryn, are expecting their first baby in late June! Again, we are always excited to have more babies added to the family! :-)

Since then, we have basically stayed home and worked! Now we're saving up for our next vacation next summer (Lord willing!) and you guessed it, it includes going to games at several ballparks! :-) We were able to go to visit some friends of ours in Lexington, KY, (about an hour &1/2 from here) for Thanksgiving. It was a great time of fellowship and we enjoyed the day. For Christmas, we are staying home as well. We do have family planning to come down to our house for Christmas this year... we're just not sure yet if it will be Chris' sister and her family or my parents.

Well, I think that about covers everything! If you are really interested in seeing pictures from our excursions this year, they are all posted on our personal website.

Again, Merry CHRISTmas to you all! Don't forget the REASON for this season we are celebrating... The Lord Jesus Christ! We are celebrating his birth on this earth, but don't forget that the only reason He left Heaven for earth was to take the penalty for our sins by dying on the cross. The story doesn't end there, however. He was then buried, and rose again on the 3rd day. He conquered death, so that we could have eternal life in Heaven with Him. How do we receive the gift of eternal life in Heaven? We have to accept the fact that we are sinners, believe by faith that Jesus died in our place for the punishment of those sins, and confess our sin to God and ask Him to forgive us and save us from our sin. Have you done that? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? If not, you are missing the BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT OF ALL! (If you have any questions or want to know more about accepting Christ as your personal Savior, you can give us a call anytime!)

Wishing you the very Merriest of CHRISTmases and a BLESSED NEW YEAR!

Serving Christ,
Chris and Heather Beth
Psalm 91:1, Lam 3:22-23

Salesman of the Year!

I just had to take a minute to brag on God and my husband. Chris' company Christmas party was on Saturday night, and his boss announced there that Chris is SALESMAN of the YEAR! So, why do I say I'm bragging on God? Well, because God is the one who brought the customers to Chris, God is the one who blessed Chris with "the gift of gab" (as my grandma puts it), and if it weren't for God, none of us would even be here! It is only in Him that we live, move and have our being (Acts 17:28a "For in him we live, and move, and have our being;")

This is Chris' first year ever in sales. Add to that we only moved here 3 months before Chris took this job, so, unlike most of the salespeople, he didn't really have any contacts from which to network his business. He drove onto the lot every morning, stopped and asked God to help him sell one car today, and went to work. God blessed him tremendously... not only allowing him to sell cars and make money to provide for our family, but also allowing him to have many conversations with co-workers and customers alike, sharing Jesus Christ with them. He won Salesman of the Month in January, March, and April. He finished the year with 145 cars sold... 27 more cars than anyone else in the dealership. Praise the Lord for his provision!
Also, I just want to say this... I love my husband so much! :-) Though the hours are long and days sometimes frustrating, I am so thankful that I have a man that is willing to work long and hard to support our family. Many women are not blessed in that way. Thank you, Lord, for giving me Chris... You knew I needed him! :-)

Here is a caricature drawn of Chris by a guy at the Christmas party:

It's a picture of Chris catching a home run at Fenway Park... He's sitting on the Green Monster. The player is supposed to be Jonny Damon from the NY Yankees. I think the artist did a GREAT job... it looks just like him! :-)

My new haircut

Here's my new haircut... it's SHORT in the back, but I love it! It's so easy to take care of!
The night I got it cut... front
Side
Back

Christmas decorations

Here are some pictures of our house decorated for Christmas:
The Nativity scene always takes it's place of honor centered under the tree. The wisemen are on the table in the kitchen... they are still on their way! :-)
A wreath my SIL, Rachael made for us for Christmas last year, and a snowflake bell door chime that another SIL, Julie, gave me for Christmas many years ago.

A sled that a friend, Dawn, made for me for Christmas probably 8 years ago now.
Candy Cane snowman. He's funky, but a dear friend gave him to me, so...

Side table in the kitchen... the wisemen are on here now.
The dining room

My kitchen windowsill

My one shelf in the living room :-)

Putting the tree up
Chris and I started a tradition of getting a personalized ornament every year with our names and the year on it. We didn't get one last year b/c of $ issues, but we're planning on making up for that this year. Anyway, here are the ornaments all together, and below are pics of them on the tree. I couldn't get a half-way decent one of the snowflake due to the reflection. Anyway, here they are...
Our first Christmas 2000
2001
2002
2004

2005

A large barn star ornament I made at a stamping party this year

the small barn star we made

A snowflake ornament that I made years ago. I have about 2 dozen of them on my tree. I love them!

The tree during the day

At night with the niches lit up as well.

Merry Christmas everyone!