Happy Halloween

As usual I have a whole lot of updates, because I seem to have taken to blogging at a rather infrequent rate. Once again, please know that I am up to date with all your blogs!

I wanted to start by saying Happy Halloween to everyone. I have always loved Halloween, even as a kid. It has never been a big deal here in Australia and while every year we get a few trick or treaters, they are pretty few and far between. Last year it rained so we only got one lot of people to our door. I wish the holiday would take off over here, because I think the whole idea of dressing up is really fun. People don't have a good reaction to it here though generally. I'm not sure if it is because of the supernatural theme behind it, or the whole "knocking on people's doors asking for candy" thing or some other reason. The younger generation like people my age seem to think it's all fun, but the older generation don't react well to it. Also I think because of political correctness, people feel they can't talk about stuff like Halloween these days. When I was a kid we used to talk about Halloween at school, and even make decorations. Now because Australia is such a multicultural society, anything that may cause offence to people of certain cultures or religions is generally not discussed as part of the school curriculum. So Halloween is not discussed, and while Christmas is mentioned in conversation kids don't make decorations or anything like that as part of their schooling anymore. It is quite sad really - I don't see why we can't just talk about and support all beliefs.

As for family updates it has been rather crazy. My father fell down some steps and injured his shoulder recently at work, and had to have surgery to repair the shoulder last week. A week before he was due to have the surgery my mum broke her ankle. The thing is though - she doesn't know how she broke it. One morning she just woke up and it had swollen and was unbearably painful, so she went to the doctors and they sent her for x-rays. They are now concerned that because she doesn't know how she did it, this may indicate osteoporosis. She will have bone density tests in the next few weeks.
With both my parents out of action - they are both unable to drive, shop, do housework etc I have been doing all that stuff for them. I am exhausted!! But of course, I am always happy to help my folks.

I have a bit of an announcement to make, and it is something I have known for a while but have been keeping close to my chest. Joel and I recently decided that we are going to chase our dream of a second baby. Nobody IRL knows this yet, apart from the two of us. Also it is not something that is going to happen now - it will be in the future. There is still a lot of preparing to be done. We have been saving hard because of course it will be back to IVF for us, but we still have a lot more saving to do, I want to lose a few pounds and my iron levels are still a bit low from all the bleeding issues I had in the past, so they need to come up. Also of course my Mirena device is still in place and doing a great job, so that will need to come out. Lots of things to consider. Also there is lots of emotion to overcome too. When we had Xavier I knew that even though the journey had been tough, I was ready and able to do it again. Joel was unsure whether he could cope with it again though. Don't forget that even though it was me that went through the pregnancy physically, it was pretty scary for him too. He has admitted to me that when I got put in hospital and had to be given blood transfusions etc, and then in the end they decided a c section was needed because I was getting too sick, he was terrified. Prior to the pregnancy, I was hospitalised during the IVF process with ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome so it had been a whole run of scary health related stuff that Joel had to watch me go through.

Then when we had our last FET and we lost the baby Joel decided he was done. It has been a long process but I learnt to come to terms with being a one child mum. Many months ago, Joel expressed to me that he was feeling like we were meant to have another child, but said that if I wasn't comfortable then that was fine. At that time, I wasn't interested. I had made my peace with our situation and I had no desire to stir up emotions that had been put to rest. But as the months went by I found that now the desire had been woken up again, it wouldn't go away. I have prayed a lot about it, and a few things have happened that have made me feel like we are supposed to at least try for baby number 2. If it doesn't work out, then I will be OK. I am scared to be putting my heart back on the line, but I honestly do feel like it will be all right whatever happens. So anyway - that is my news and we shall see what God has in store. Lots of Love to all of you. Jo xoxoxo