I'm super anal about blogging about our lives in chronological order. I've had lots of activity lately in my life, but I can't post about it because I haven't yet written about my epic, once-in-a-lifetime trip to Maui in January/February. I've been overwhelmed with the idea of writing about Hawaii and uploading all of the amazing pictures. I'm going to try and finish the Hawaii trip post this week so I can move on to the rest of my life and catch you up. This needs to happen because the longer I go without writing, the easier it is to forget my adventures. And believe it or not, this blog exists for bigger reasons than just as entertainment for my loyal readers. I also like to keep the blog to act as a journal or record. For those that don't know, I have a pretty poor memory, so this blog is a way to document my life.
But let me update you on a couple of major things that don't necessarily warrant a full post. First, I started a new job on March 1. I applied for and went through the interview process to be a Management Analyst. As you recall, I used to be a Management Analyst and my position was eliminated in July due to budget cuts. I was able to move into another job as a Case Manager without a change in pay/benefits/etc. It was nice to have a job, but I never really enjoyed the role as a social worker. Since July I've been looking for positions that would better match my background, education, and interests. So I finally found a new position and am a Management Analyst again. It is for a different agency, but it is still within the State of Washington; and it's essentially a promotional opportunity. So far I enjoy the job and I'm glad to be back in my field. I'm commuting to Olympia again, but I re-joined my old vanpool to help save money on the commute. Because this position provided a little bit of a raise and my commute is so long, I decided to quit my part-time job at Panera again. It's nice to have my weekends back and it's nice to be in a job that feels like a good career path for me again.
There's one other thing I wanted to share. This week is National Infertility Awareness Week and I've decided it's a good time to share that we are experiencing the grief and stress that is infertility. Approximately 1 in 8 couples will experience infertility. After trying for a kid the old-fashioned way for a long time, Robb and I decided to see a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) to figure out if anything was wrong. It looks like we both have medical factors that mean we will be unable to conceive children naturally. We've already completed a few tests and will spend the next few months dealing with additional tests. At this point - in the pessimistic/realistic sense and going on the tests that we've already completed - it looks like our only possibility to have a biological child may be in-vitro fertilization (IVF). This is very expensive (infertility is not covered by our insurance) and a very invasive procedure. We are starting to cut out most of our discretionary spending so that we can save every penny to go towards having a chance at a family. All of this is pretty overwhelming right now and the emotions are tough. We know that one day we'll be parents, whether it's through medical treatment or adoption (which by the way, is even more expensive than IVF), it's just sad that we may have to wait many years before this happens.
As an FYI, I probably won't post a lot about our infertility struggles because 1) This is a blog about living our lives in the Pacific Northwest; I don't want it to turn into an infertility blog. 2) Many of the tests are invasive and I don't want to share information about our bodily functions and I'm thinking most of you don't want to hear about that crap anyways (if anyone is actually dealing with infertility and has specific questions though, I'd be happy to talk with you one-on-one.) 3) It will be a long time before we can afford to proceed with IVF; there's not much else to say about our reproductive lives until that can happen.
So that's the latest on our everyday lives. Like I said, I hope to get back to blogging more regularly soon. Can you believe it's May already???
