Category Archives: Friends and Family

Day 349: Spiritual Awakening?

Some of my friends, the hubs and I are on a quest of the spiritual nature. We, like many urban 30 somethings (ok I’m still in my 20s but am almost there), have an urge to “find” ourselves post quarter-life crisis. We hope to educate ourselves about the historic religions and find nondenominational, spiritual guidance and community. And perhaps an opportunity to serve the community in some way.

As a group, we’ve identified a few places to “try.” Today it was Bodhi in Lincoln Park. I don’t really want to go into too much detail on the pros and cons simply because they are so specific to me. I feel strongly that I can only say for myself whether one place is “better” than another. But what I can say is that the biggest impression I got from Bodhi is how open a community they are. We instantly felt welcomed and accepted.

Next week it’s down to Boystown for a service at the Second Unitarian Church. If you have any suggestions for other places for us to check out in Chicago, let me know!

Also Sunday was a full day-from church to brunch to Cubs to watch Giants v Cowboys at home (I do NOT want to talk about this game). It was so busy I wore three different outfits! So I thought instagramming three #ootds would be a good way to chronicle the day. Here they are: I am sure you can tell which is which (so fun!)

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Day 348: More Big News!

The hubs and I have an announcement: we have decided to grow our family through adoption.

We have many reasons for this and some of them have to do with RA. First, though I want to say this path has called to me. From a young age, I have felt passionate about adoption as a way to help women and children in need. It also happens that having RA can cause difficulties getting pregnant, staying pregnant and, more commonly, staying healthy and pain-free throughout and following pregnancy.

The hubs and I went through the process of going off of methotrexate and waiting until it was safe to try (3 cycles methotrexate free). However after just a few months more, we reached a point where I felt like I was heading back to the bad physical place of last summer. We made the decision to go back on methotrexate.

During this period, we also went to an info session at an adoption agency and consulted friends who have adopted. We talked at length about why we want children and if those reasons had anything to do with genetics. We found that while we were naturally interested to see what a child that is the biological product of the two of us looks like, many of the other reasons had nothing to do with biology. After our August roadtrip, we reached out to the agency to begin the process.

I thought a lot about blogging about the pregnancy process with RA as we experienced it, however I also wanted to keep it private so as not to put too much pressure. It is an important issue for young women with RA and one that I am open to discussing now. I just couldn’t let myself get back to what I call “the bad place.” It’s where the motivation to run came from, the motivation to eat well, and the initial motivation to open up on this blog. And it was enough motivation to last a lifetime-no need to experience it again.

Now I am excited to share our adoption journey. Much much more on this to come!

Day 347: Nancy the Accountant

In my role at Emily Alt Photography, I am working with their amazing accountant Nancy who is teaching me how to use Quickbooks. When I say “amazing accountant,” I mean so, oh-my-gosh-darn, super dee duper, fantastic, fun, crazy smart amazing. She is also so encouraging and supportive of me in this new role. I can’t imagine what it would be like if she was just exasperated with everything I don’t know. (I should probably add patient to her amazing list). She makes me feels confident and competent. What a great teacher! What a great phone call we had today!

Day 342: Tennis

Labor Day weekend continues to bring new experiences. Today I played tennis for the first time in a looooooong time.

I took lessons as a youngin (all summer, right after golf) but considering the changes in my physical ability, if anything stuck, it was not obvious. The hubs and I volleyed with our friends for a while. I really enjoyed trying to predict where the ball would go, where I should stand and where (on the racket) to hit the ball. I even enjoyed the small amount of running involved, though I also appreciated playing as doubles. I don’t think I would be able to sprint around as much as one does in a singles game. Here I am looking all sporty.

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After our volleys, the hubs and one of our friends played a set. These two dudes have been pretty in to tennis for a few months now and are getting good. I think I could help the hubs continue to train, if only as someone to hit wild, unpredictable balls for him to chase.

Day 341: The British Are Swinging!

It’s Labor Day Weekend. All we did was go to the beach and then swing in the Red Coats. Since we missed Fourth of July in Grand Haven, the people who run the Twitter and Instagram accounts were wondering what happened to our annual parade. Well we are just so swing obsessed, this is all we could give them:

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