"Stick with me, my friends, there are brighter days ahead. This much I know to be true."

   It seems very fitting that these were my last blog words almost a year ago to the day. Looking back on that blog post, I remember wanting to believe so desperately the words I typed. I wanted to believe that there were, in fact, bright days ahead, but I wasn't so sure. But today is a good day, in fact every day since September 11 have been really good days. September 11 was the best of days. Unfortunately, it fell on one of the worst days for our country, but that day in the Groves' house God graced us with the news our greatest blessing. September 11, 2013 was the day we saw two lines.
     I didn't always know I wanted to be a nurse, but what I did know was that I always wanted to be a mom. I wanted a house full of children. I wanted a life surrounded in the chaos of sticky fingers and smudged windows. But what I didn't know was that it was a lot harder than my sex ed teacher made it sound years ago. I didn't know it would involve taking my temperature every morning before even moving a muscle, or collecting a urine sample at the same time every day to test for ovulation. I also didn't know it would involve blood tests, ultrasounds, and multiple doctor's appointments, but it did. It was 6 days before our first appointment with one of the city's best fertility doctors and 3 weeks after my doctor had called me at 10:30 at night from his home to tell me "something's not right". We had just closed one chapter of our journey to parenting and we were ready to start the next. With all the emotions stirring inside me, I realized something was missing and it was the something I had been hoping I'd miss since the moment I said "I do".
 I was pregnant.