Our weekend trip was awesome. We went to Grass Valley and Nevada City ( which about 6 minutes further). It is about a 3 hour drive from where we live in Newark. Just far enough to seem like somewhere foreign and not that far to drive. We spent half the day at The Yuba River, which was both our favorite part of our trip.
The river was beautiful and we found a local's secret swimming hole that was somewhat secluded and full of water so clear that you could see the fishies swimming. It had a freezing cold waterfall which I dared Sergio to put his head in and a warm swimming area surrounded by subtle but strong water currents of the river.
We usually like to go away every year on this weekend because this time of year we hit some very personal and special anniversaries. This time we came back on those dates but nevertheless we were close. Eight years ago our baby girl Aya Imani Lopez was born on August 7, 2007 and she passed away on August 11. Her life on earth was only 5 days long and I cherished every moment I was able to hold her and take her home like every mother treasures. I am grateful for the time I had with her and grateful she is in a better place and not suffering in this life on earth with the disabilities she would of had. I am grateful to God, he knew what we could handle, what our marriage could handle and that we were able to survive a death of a child and still remain strong, faithful, and hopeful for the future. Although it hasn't been an easy road, we are still fighting and haven't given up on our dreams of someday ( hopefully soon) becoming parents again.
Recently a great friend shared that she wished she could see my love for God again and the more zealous person I used to be before this tragedy hit my life. I told her that I will never be the same again because what has I have been through has changed me forever. My relationship with God is different, my view of life, my compassion for others and understanding has changed me forever. At times in the last eight years I have had a lot of grief but God has shaped me into a better more compassionate person from it. He has strengthened my faith through the many times it has been shipwrecked.
So I dedicate this blog post in honor and memory of Aya, who forever changed our lives, whom we miss and still get sad about but will always live on in our memories.
Lastly, I must update you on our egg retrieval outcome. Out of the 25 eggs I had, 16 that were fertilized and 6 embryos made it to day 6 and were able to be biopsied for the Pre Genetic Diagnosis/ Pre Genetic Screening testing. The doctor expected 40%-50% to make it to this blastocyte stage so I think it is a good number. It just seems so narrowed down from 25 eggs but this is the miracle that it takes for every baby to be made. Please pray for my 6 little embryos and that when our PGD test is made in 2-4 weeks they are able to accurately discriminate which embryos are affected with our genetic mutation and which ones are not. Please pray that we still have a good number of healthy embryos to implant for a healthy baby and hopefully some sibling(s).
