Thanks, Dad

You know how sometimes someone will say something to you and it will go right over the top of your head?  Or how, if someone gives you advice and it sounds sort of cliche?  Like this too shall pass or everything happens for a reason?  Well, as recently mentioned, I indulged in about four hours of wedding video watching on Sunday morning (our wedding video was edited by our best man who is not a wedding video professional (ha! I could have also just said videographer), so we basically have our entire wedding on DVD).  Anyway, since then, I haven't been able to get my dad's welcome speech out of my mind.

It's interesting, because watching the video, I can see that while I was definitely listening to my dad as he spoke to us that night, I certainly didn't hear what he was saying or what his message was... until now.  As part of my dad's speech, he spoke to Nick and I telling us how important a strong foundation is in a relationship - that, if you have a weak foundation your house will crumble, but with a strong foundation your house will last.  He went on to say that the good times are going to be easy and that we'll find those.  But the hard times... the hard times will find us and it's important to have a strong foundation filled with love and humor to make it through those times.  I've sort of had a lump in my throat ever since watching the video this weekend.  I mean, how foreshadowing is that?!  The hard times certainly have found us.  But three years ago, I had not a clue what my dad could have possibly been talking about.  I mean, clearly, I never in a million, billion, trillion, quadrillion (is this a word?) years would have thought that Nick and I would be dealing with infertility.  What forever had seemed like the simple act of bringing a baby into this world has proven me so, so, so wrong.  And with this, what I now know as one of the most difficult endeavors of my life - trying to bring a baby into this world, my dad's speech couldn't be more true.

So thank you Dad, for sharing that message with us three years ago.  Thank you for speaking from your heart and for speaking the truth that night.  I'll forever treasure your words.  I'm thankful today that Nick's and my foundation is strong.  And while we may not be getting through this hard time with humor, we at least have a whole heck of a lot of love that seems to be doing the trick.