Being done with infertility treatments is like a weight the size of Texas being lifted off my shoulders. If God had lead us to do another IVF cycle, I’d of course be doing it. However, it is such a breath of fresh air knowing another cycle is not looming in the near future.

In the thick of infertility treatments I didn’t really ever even think about what life would be like again after treatments were finished. Going through infertility treatments is so incredibly draining in every way imaginable that, for me, I found the only thing I could do was press on and rely on the strength and power God has promised to give us when going through a trial.

After every failed cycle the same thing would always happen.

Of course, there would be the torrential downfall of tears, the angry moments and dealing with yet another month of extreme disappointment.

Then, it was always as if at a certain time, my mind would shut off to the tears, anger and disappointment and it would switch over to, “What’s next?”. I’d make an appointment with my fabulous RE, we would discuss our options, I’d go home and we would seek God as far as what He would have us do next, He would give us a peace about what to do and we would press on from there, leaving the previous cycle’s disappointments in the past.

A year of this went on.

Looking back on that year of infertility treatments I see that God used those circumstances to do many miraculous things in my life.

One of the most significant things He taught me is that trials in our life are temporary. Trials are simply the tool God uses to draw us to Himself, to mold and shape our character to be more like Him and to bring glory to His Name as we continue to praise Him through the storm.

For me, it made the trial seem more bearable if I chose to embrace the fact that God was at work in my life through the storm, rather than dwell on all the emotions of feeling forgotten and the questions of why does this have to be me going through this.

Embracing the truth found in Jeremiah 29:11 gave me what I needed to hang on to hope even during those darkest days.

It is hard to know really what “category” I now fall under because infertility treatments are over for me, I never achieved a pregnancy but I am about to welcome my daughter to the world through the miracle of adoption.

Contrary to what some may believe, adoption does not suddenly take away the pain of infertility or the desire to be pregnant. At the same time, by adopting and not ever achieving a pregnancy through IUI or IVF, I do not feel I am settling for second best.

No, my friends, I am definitely NOT living second best!

I am living God’s perfect plan A for my life. I think it is just beautiful that God had all this planned before I took my first breath almost 28 years ago. When I dreamed of holding and caring for my baby girl years ago before I even knew Dave, little did I know it was this little girl I was dreaming about.

I simply cannot wait to lay my eyes on her. I know it is going to be a moment in time that will stay imprinted in my mind and heart until the day I die.

- Elaine