Show-And-Tell / SITM Post (aka What You All Mean To Me)

Okay, so I'm cheating (just a little) and piggy-backing on both the Show-and-Tell and Sock-It-To-Me posts. I'm still a bit weary from traveling, so blame it on the car-lag (as opposed to jet-lag, I guess!).

Anyway, I am the proud recipient of socks from Kathy of Three of a Kind, Working On A Full House. She did a great job picking out just the right "lucky" socks! The pictures below simply don't do them justice.







Although the socks didn't bring me the BFP I was hoping for the first time I wore them, I am taking the approach that, like a good pair of shoes, they just need a little time to be broken in. I plan on wearing them throughout our IVF cycle -- from our consult on Monday through delivery! (Note the positive vibes, there? And I mean I will wear them for medical procedures/doctors appointments, not every single day. . .although, if that will bring home baby, I'm not adverse to trying that either!).

Now, for the hard part of this post. Trying to put into words what the ALI community means to me is difficult. How to explain the way you've held me together when everything else was falling apart? How do you convey to people you've never met how very much their simple words mean? Lucky for me, someone else has the words I'm looking for. As we were driving home, I put in my favorite Christian music CD and was blown away by how this particular song really hit home for me. In case you are interested, I embedded the entire song below (it really IS better when heard to music!), but the part that describes this community for me is in the chorus:

This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we'd be held.

This community holds me up. I've seen the most sacred things in life ripped from so many strong, beautiful women here -- and yet we survive. Somehow we keep going. And this community is what holds us when we fall. People we've never met shower us with love. It's truly the most amazing thing I have ever had the privilege of being a part of. I've been fortunate enough not to experience, for me, the ultimate loss -- but I know that if I had to, you would all be here, holding me, as I picked up the pieces. That's the promise that Mel, and Kymberli, and all of you have made. The promise to be there, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad.

Thank you all for this priceless gift.