Dinner at Jeff Ruby's

Here are the pics I promised from our "dress up date night" dinner at Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse. We went on 02/02/08, and considered that our Valentine Dinner.

Chris & I at the house dressed up and ready to go. Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse
I know this is kind of a gross picture, but this is the meat that they prepare. The cooler is just inside the door, and they have this window so you can see the meat.

At the restaurant, with our appetizer of 4 jumbo shrimp, 2 Alaskan King Crab legs, and an oyster on the half shell. Chris ate the oyster because I didn't really want to try it! My Alaskan King Crab leg... that thing is HUGE!

After we finished the appetizer, they brought us warm moist washcloths to wipe our fingers. I was very thankful for that, since my hands were FREEZING!
My Kentucky Bleu Bibb salad. All of those things on top are shreds of green apple.
It's all about PRESENTATION! The salad was surrounded by a cucumber sliced very thin lengthwise. When I removed the cucumber, the salad kind of popped out! It was so yummy!
(Chris just had a Ceasar salad... no special presentation there!) :-)
Here we are again with our meals.
Here is my meal... a little "surf and turf"... 21 ounce Cowboy steak on the bone (that's a ribeye) and an 11 ounce lobster tail. They served it with lemon in a little mesh thing, and you can see the pot with the melted butter at the top.
Our side dishes... MacDaddy and cheese (made with 7 different cheeses) and lobster mashed potatoes. They had two 4 ounce lobster tails on top, and the red you see on either side of the lobster was caviar. They were SO DELICIOUS!
Dessert... Dutch Apple Cobbler a la mode. Again, the presentation was pretty cool, but I could have had another scoop of ice cream!
Chris outside after eating. It was cold out there, and I was shaking so much I almost couldn't take the picture!
We had a delightful time, enjoyed the wonderful food, and I enjoyed having 2&1/2 hours with my hubby! It was a wonderful experience!

Just to clarify...

Several people have asked when we will have an update on the baby. We will not know anything until the first week of March, when we have our pregnancy test - 03/03/08, at 10:30am - if you want to pray specifically! :-) We probably won't post anything right away, just to give us time to call the people that we need to call first. Also, if the pregnancy test IS positive (as well as the bloodwork indicating pregnancy), they do a follow-up bloodwork two days later. If all goes well, I probably won't post anything until after that bloodwork. In December, the pregnancy test was positive, but the follow-up bloodwork showed that we would lose the baby, which we did. I don't really want to go through calling everyone to tell them that we're pregnant, just to call back 2 days later and tell them that we're going to lose the baby. I'm sure you all understand that! :-) So - look for a post probably toward the end of the first week of March... and please keep us in your prayers! Thanks so much for your prayers... we appreciate them more than you know!

Oh, yeah, by the way... if you want to pray REALLY specifically... we're praying for a baby boy (twins would be good, too!) The REASON that we are praying for a boy is because his name has a very significant meaning to us - much more so than the girl's name we have chosen. Our little boy's name is Jadon Christopher (Christi - I hope you don't mind us using your Jadon!) :-) Jadon is a Bible name, and you can find it in Nehemiah 3:7. Basically the Bible mentions Jadon as a man who was just building his part of the wall. Jadon also means "Jehovah (or God) has heard." Very fitting for our situation, don't you think?! Christopher, obviously, is after his daddy, Chris, but also means "follower of Christ." If God chooses to give us this little one and any others He might surprise us with... more than anything we want our child(ren) to be followers of Christ. Now, I must say, too, that we would be THRILLED with a girl, too, and have her name picked out as well. Chris and I just feel like this might be our boy, and every time we hear his name, we'll be reminded of what it means, and that God HAS heard!

So AMAZING!

... and people say that there is no Creator!

I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you who have prayed and are praying for us through this time. I also wanted to share these pictures with you, because I think that they are SO AMAZING! Though Chris and I would never have chosen to go through in vitro fertilization to have a baby, we have received many blessings through this trial. One of which is that we have actually seen pictures of all of our embryos (babies, in our minds!) It is just so amazing to see what God is doing and most parents have no idea that their babies have even been conceived at this point, much less SEE them!

Our embryologist, Dr. Cristina, likes to take pictures of the embryos within an hour of the transfer. We went in for the transfer at 2pm, and she showed us the first picture (taken at 1 pm). She said it was OK, but she would have liked to see a little more definition. Dr. Homm, my fertility doctor who actually does the transfer, got delayed with another patient for about an hour. So, Dr. Cristina took another picture at 2:20pm. That is the second one you see below. She was very thrilled with the growth of the embryo, and was very positive.


This is a picture of our embryo at 1pm... as you are looking at the picture, the baby forms to the right side, and the bumps on the left side are where the embryo attaches to the uterus.


This is a picture of our embryo at 2:20pm. It is so amazing to me to see how much it had grown in just 1 hour & 20 minutes! Chris and I feel SO BLESSED just to be able to see these pictures. Most parents don't even have a clue that their baby exists at this point!

There are still no guarantees... it is totally up to God to choose to give this baby life and breath. However, we continue to pray as we wait, and have faith knowing that WHATEVER God chooses to do... "As for God, his way is PERFECT."

Again, we appreciate so much your love, prayers, and support! We will know the first week of March whether or not we are pregnant, and we'll let you all know when we can! :-)

Here We Go...

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! I hope that you are using this "Hallmark Holiday" to show some extra love to your loved ones around you, and to encourage others. Actually, Chris and I joke about Valentine's Day being a Hallmark Holiday (a holiday created to generate more money for card and candy makers!), but Valentine's Day is actually a "Christian" holiday. Did you know that? So take some time today and show someone that you love them!

Valentine's Day Card I made for Chris

All that being said, Chris and I don't really DO much for each other on Valentine's Day. Chris says it's too close to Christmas, and we don't usually have any money! So - for this year... we went out on 02/02 to Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse~ a VERY posh steakhouse here in Louisville. To give you an idea, the Queen of England ate there when she was in town for the Derby last year! Chris earned a free dinner for the two of us anywhere we wanted when he got the Sales Associate of the Year at the dealership... so we used it to go there. We got to dress up and take 2&1/2 hours to fully enjoy the FABULOUS dinner (that cost $360 with tax and tip included! YIKES!) I'll post pictures soon. We decided to use that as our Valentine Dinner!

Chris & I at Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse... this is our "surf&turf" dinner

Then, on Monday night, we went to the Teen Valentine Banquet at church. Because of the snow, the banquet got cut short, but we had a good time anyway. I'll post some pics of that, too. Tomorrow, we are going to a Married Couple's Sweetheart Dinner (informal) at our camp. We are looking forward to that!
WISHING we were in Hawaii with surfboards (not in those outfits, of course), instead of being in COLD and SNOWY weather! (Teen Valentine Banquet at church)

The title of this note says "Here we go..." I went to my doctor today so that they could check to make sure my body is ready for the next IVF cycle, and it is... here we go! The transfer will take place on Feb. 18th (President's Day), at 2pm Eastern time. Please pray that the embryo will survive the thawing process, and that everything will go smoothly. Although we will be happy with a baby of God's choosing, we are praying for a son. (I'm actually praying for TWIN boys, but we'll see what God has for us!) We would appreciate your prayers for us during this time... specifically that we would be able to HAVE this baby, and also that our insurance reimbursements will come through in a timely manner so that we don't have to pay for this forever! We have been fighting with our insurance company since October 2007. I will be on bedrest for 3 full days after the transfer (I have about 20 books to read!), and then I am on "light duty" for the remainder of the 2 weeks until the pregnancy test. I am looking forward to not having to work for 2 weeks, and am hoping to get a LOT of stamping done! :-)

A friend of mine sent me a CD last week... this song was on it! I LOVE it so much I thought I'd share the lyrics with you. They apply so well to what we've been going through the past couple of months, and I'm sure that most of you can apply them to some trial that you've faced in your life as well.

For My Good and For His Glory

by Rebecca J. Peck

I must admit that I don't understand

why God would let me face

this painful circumstance
All I have to cling to is His Word and His Name,

But that's enough - so I will trust

It's for my good and for His glory,

This trial's not the end of the story~

There's a bigger picture God alone can see.

Faith will take me through this sorrow
for I know He holds tomorrow

And He assures me
It's for my good and for His glory.

Because I love the Lord, He's promised me
To work all things for good -

Through tears I still believe
That His ways are higher than any of my own
Though my heart aches, He makes no mistakes!

It's for my good and for His glory,
This trial's not the end of the story~
There's a bigger picture God alone can see.
Faith will take me through this sorrow

for I know He holds tomorrow
And He assures me

it's for my good and for His glory.

Last Sat. I got to go to the Creation Museum in Cincinatti, OH. It was SO COOL... and so much more than JUST a creation museum! It is really the story of the Gospel throughout the whole museum. So - if any of you are interested, the website is: http://www.creationmuseum.org/ I'll post some pics of that soon, too! :-)

Well, that's about it for now! Happy Valentine's Day! :-)

I'm still alive...

I got an e-mail from a friend yesterday wondering if I'm OK since I haven't blogged in a while. So, for any others of you out there who are wondering about me... I'M STILL ALIVE!

We are doing well, but I'm still playing catch up with projects (as well as adding additional ones!) I FINALLY mailed out Christmas cards yesterday, so a few of you who read this might actually get a Christmas Valentine's card! :-)

I promise... I will get to catching up on blogging soon... on this blog and my stamping blog. I have been making cards like crazy, so I'll have a ton to post when I get around to it.

Our next (and last) in vitro fertilization transfer is scheduled for Feb. 18th. If you would, please pray that God gives us this baby! We only have one embryo left, so our chances for success are a little decreased. However, we know that God can do what seems to us impossible... like giving us twin boys (which is what I'm praying for!) Anyway, since I am on bedrest for a couple of days, then on light duty for an additional almost 2 weeks, I SHOULD be able to catch up on posts! :-) Please bear with me, and pray that our IVF will be successful. Thanks! :-)