Friday was not a good day. Satan attacked from all angles and planted seeds of fear in my heart at a rapid rate.

I knew the choice was mine of whether I was going to sit down and allow him to continue this destruction rampage or if I was going to stand firm in Christ and stand up and fight.

I chose to stand up and fight in the name of Jesus Christ and rebuke Satan’s attempts to have any sort of control over my life whatsoever.

I know what my two most powerful weapons of defense are:

1. The Word of God
2. Prayer Warriors

The Word of God is my first line of defense. The Word of God proclaims and declares that my strength comes from God. God’s Word promises peace and joy in the midst of a trial. God’s Word declares God has a perfect plan and purpose for every circumstance of my life – including infertility.

This is where my focus must stay as I run this race set before me. I cannot place my focus on injections, doctor visits, ultrasounds, ovarian stimulation, egg retrievals, embryos, transfers and pregnancy tests. If I put my focus on those things I will surely fall to the ground in defeat before the race is even over. I’ll have to be pulled off the track before I am trampled over.

If I keep my focus on what the Word of God says in the Bible I will be empowered with God’s strength and power to be able to persevere through every injection, doctors visit and ultrasound. I will persevere and run through ovarian stimulation, egg retrieval and transfer.

I will run with confidence knowing I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!

I love to scrapbook. So I am making a scrapbook of “IVF Verses” that will be easy to access in times of need!

My second weapon against Satan and fear is YOU – my prayer warriors. Knowing people are praying will bring comfort to me knowing that I am not running alone. I will run knowing I am surrounded by my prayer warriors interceding on my behalf to God, lifting me up daily to the Lord in prayer.

Just knowing you are praying gives me the will-power to press on, to persevere - even when it gets so tough.

I hope you understand that even though I am the one going through IVF, YOU play a very critical role in this process!

There is tremendous power in prayer. I have experienced it before during the time we did IUIs.

My last IUI was especially difficult as I knew that if it didn’t work, we would possibly be taking steps towards surgery and IVF. Not where I wanted to go! For what was at stake, I was dreading a negative blood test that time more than I ever had for the previous two IUIs cycle.

Sure enough, blood test came back … negative. There was deep sorrow and deep pain in that time, but there was also an unmistakable peace.

Later I learned my 80-year-old Grandmother had prayed continuously no matter what the outcome of the cycle, I would feel God’s peace surrounding me.

That was also the cycle where I had a “Day of Prayer for Baby”. Numerous people signed up to pray for us throughout that day.

Don’t think for one minute that your prayers don’t matter. They do.

Now is the time. God has brought us to the place. We have made the decision to do IVF. Tomorrow, we begin.

It will not be easy. There will be bumps along the way. However, if I keep my focus on the Word of God and you pray me through everything, I know it will make all the difference in the world. Satan will have absolutely no reign in my life as I will be filled with God’s perfect strength.

It’s time to walk to the starting line. The gun will sound, signaling the start of this race, bright and early tomorrow morning as I (attempt) to give myself that first injection at 7am.

Ist IVF prayer request: Pray I will be able to give myself the shot at 7am and then again at 7pm!

UPDATE: Just gave myself the 7am injection and it was no big deal! Easy as pie. Please do pray for me at 7pm as I am a little more nervous about that injection because it is with an actual needle and syringe. This shot was with the “epi-pen” and less intimidating.

*****

Here is the traditional IVF meds picture:

To look at it all is overwhelming.

I must remember, even though it is a lot of meds, I am not taking it all in one day!

One day at a time!

*****

My parents came over today and Mama helped me get everything organized so I will know what meds to take on what day. We are both big organizers so we had fun and I feel a lot less overwhelmed having everything organized and ready to go.

The system we used to organized was really quite simple! Every day’s meds (and necessary supplies) were placed in a zip lock baggie with the date and med dosage written on the bag. Now all I have to do it take one bag at a time!

  Here’s a picture of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday’s bag. After the ultrasound on Thursday, I’ll put together more bags with the meds I’ll need after Wednesday.

Here is a picture of “The Pharmacy”, which also happens to be in the future nursery:

- Elaine