{We’re in the middle of a series on fertility. You can read  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and a quick post on Mother’s Day – or read the whole series here.}

There are two main reasons I’m writing this series, which is so very personal and tender to my heart:                                1. For me: I’m doing this for posterity’s sake more than anything, so bear with me.                                                                    2. For you: I want to share our story with others.

Timeline Recap

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2011

We had prayerfully decided to move to London as students to pursue graduate degrees {more here}.  This is where our path and Evan’s parted ways and he packed up to begin college. It was an amazingly exciting time for me and Grant together, as we prepared to move abroad.

            

We moved August 17th, and had barely been in London a month when I ended up in hospital with appendicitis.I woke up out of surgery in more pain than I have ever felt in my life and had been cut open twice instead of once. I did not get better after surgery. In fact, I got worse.

 

In fact, I almost died.

It was a dark time for me.

{As it turned out, that botched appendectomy, followed by the MRSA staff infection which I got in hospital, wreaked havoc on my abdominal cavity. Later we would be told by specialists in Atlanta that the infection ruined one fallopian tube completely and that the resulting scar tissue left me with a less than 10% chance of ever getting pregnant naturally – in fact, we were told IVF was our only option.}

      

Christmas 2011

The next 3 months were a blur of pain, but when my family came to visit at Christmas they helped pull me out of depression. We rung in the new year at a party surrounded by friends and I was hopeful that 2012 would be much much better.

2012

If London was the hardest year, it was also the best.

Believe it or not, despite the appendectomy, our time in London is season that brings me so much joy. We made some of the best friends, ate some of the best food, explored some of the coolest places, experienced some of the best home-comings with friends, discovered the best of Hillsong London (our church), and made the most of our time there and abroad as we traveled.

February: Portugal
March: Hungary and Switzerland
April: Greece
May-June: China
June: Thailand (celebrated four wonderful years of marriage!)
July: Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Iceland
August: back to the country we missed most: America!

            

Summer 2012

I was asked to write a piece for another blog about infertility – an excerpt of which I’m including next : Fertility Series: Part 4.

{Read the next post on Celebrating Mother’s Day here.}