Gratitude Friday...

Source: lifeandloveinthepetridish.blogspot.com via Robin on Pinterest

Flippin' love that cartoon.  

This week is National Infertility Awareness Week! 

Or as a dear friend said, "Should be called National Rip Your Heart Out and Dip It in Boiling Oil Week." 

Which is likely more descriptive of how the infertility road can sometimes feel. 

Today's keeping it real moment is I wrote an entire post based on this year's theme (Don't ignore...) and had plans to post the link to Resolve's page. Along with approximately 200 other bloggers. 

It's a good post. Pleased as punch about it. 

But then I got The Feeling. 

You know. That unsure, queasy, I wouldn't if I were you feeling. 

Not a clue why. I suspect there's a lesson I haven't learned yet. Some big picture ah-ha moment God has yet to show me (or more likely I've yet to see). 

So that post will probably never see the light of day. Which is okay. I have lots of posts like that. Learned a long time ago not to ignore The Feeling. But that doesn't change the fact that I am and always will be incredibly grateful for our infertility journey. 

It gave us Aubrey Kate, 10 precious babies we'll meet in heaven one day, a life change towards thankfulness and our little miracle man. 

But wait, isn't he a natural pregnancy? 

Yep, got to experience "normal!"

However, without our journey, I don't believe I would have heard God telling me to "move." And we might have stayed on the same path, kept our precious infertility insurance and maybe never gotten pregnant again. 

Since infertility brought me to the feet of my Savior, I knew I could trust and follow even when leaving more rare than trees growing money insurance behind. Knowing His love for me, I was willing. And He displayed His grace and love once again by giving us another child. 

Does leaving the job mean I deserved a natural pregnancy or that it was promised? 

The exact opposite. Following in no way, not even a little bit, is equal to "we get what we want." But if we follow, we will get more than what we want. We'll get what He desires for our life and there is nothing I want more than to live smack in His will. 

So as I have been a million times since starting Gratitude Friday's in April 2008, I am grateful for infertility. Yes, is often felt like my heart was dipped into a boiling pot of oil. 

But it was worth it. 

Completely. 

Where is God asking you to "move"?  Are you willing to leave whatever it is behind?

And to end on a lighter note, I should also say I am very grateful my dad's famous spaghetti salad recipe made with gluten-free pasta was just as delicious as I remember. 

It's the satisfied food cravings that offer this moody, hot, snotty, exhausted pregnant woman moments of bliss.