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January 17 - Hindsight is 20/20 Journaling Challenge

Okay!! I have all the last layouts open & ready for commenting & checking!!
 
thank you for this thought-provoking challenge!



(about 240 words)


Translation:

At the end of 2009, we booked a big trip for the summer of 2010 with a travel agency : we were supposed to do the tour of Iceland in fifteen days. The agency had booked housings, car, etc... for us. But in March 2010, the volcano Eyjafjoll erupted, interrupting each flight. We inquired about the consequences of this eruption at medium term : we had risks of staying shut in to avoid breathing problems, following the fallout of ashes wich can last a few weeks, even a few months after the eruption. Our daughters were 8 and 5 years old... We didn't wanted to take any risks so we decided to cancel our trip after several days of reflection. We lost about 400 euros. On the moment we were really disappointed... between the lost of money and this project wich was falling apart.

In May 2010, we left on a whim to New York, with family for 6 days with the budget that we had chosen for Island. That was really nice! We availed it a lot: Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Mary Poppins at Broadway etc.

Finally, in 2014, we had planned again a trip to Iceland ! In the meantime we had totally changed our way of travel, focusing on longer stops, by renting housings (instead of hotels) and by planning everything by ourselves. This trip was amazing and was way less expensive that the one we had planned in 2010.
 
I think I've commented and checked everyone's pages, so if you don't have a comment from me please let me know! I don't want you to think I skipped you or that you're missing something if I just missed your page!

Thank you for making this challenge a great one!! I'll keep checking through the end for any last minute scrappers!!!
 


Journaling:
We got married at 28 and always planned to have a family. After 12 months of "trying" we went off to the local doctor who advised us to keep trying, to start taking morning temperatures to determine ovulation times and come back in a year.
In hindsight, we should have insisted, due to our age, that he refer us to a Reproductive Specialist then. So another year passed and we went to the local doctor again - this time, armed with more information, we requested a referral to a specialist and even told him which clinic to refer us to.
While being assessed (with countless invasive medical tests), we found out that the cause of our infertility was "male factor" and that a naturally conceived pregnancy would be extremely unlikely to occur. We discovered that my husband has a balanced translocation of two of his chromosomes and that these translocations are often linked to infertility and multiple miscarriages. Even the geneticist did not intimate that the translocation could affect my husband's health at all. This finding has come back to haunt us in various ways over the last 20+ years!! Pregnancy might be possible with ART (Advanced Reproductive Technology) specifically an, at that time, recent development in IVF treatment called ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection), but the risks of miscarriage were also higher due to my husband's chromosome issues.
In hindsight, we should have taken the time to research these findings more, sought out second opinions and more information to that which had been given to us and the treatment offered.
BUT we dove right in and so began about 7 years of fertility treatments: - IVF/ICSI cycles, IVF with donor cycles, Donor insemination cycles, embryo transfers, etc, etc, etc. During that time, we achieved pregnancy 4 times - only to have all end in miscarriage before eight weeks gestation. We changed clinics during that time also but with no different results. The cost was astronomical, both financially, emotionally and physically.
About 6 years into the process my husband, after months of medical investigations was diagnosed with a connective tissue disorder which meant, among other things, that at 36 his cartilage had worn out to the point that it resembled an 80-year-olds. This meant that he could no longer work and so I have had to remain working full-time in order to support us.
So, we had to give up our dreams of having a family - any ART treatments were no longer affordable, and my husband's condition meant that his health would continue to decline (as it has).
Twenty years on from that time we are still living childless (and grandchildless - which is more relevant to our current age!!) and my husband has had 7 operations including heart valve replacement for the effects of his condition. I am still working full-time until such a time that my husband will need me to be with him more as a carer.
Hindsight is 20/20 - but sometimes even with hindsight we still can't say with certainty that we would have made different decisions or that those different decisions would have led to a better outcome!!
 

This is a much bigger essay than I expected to write - 738 words!!
Journalling:
When I bought this car, I never realised it would play such an important part of my life for 17 years!! I bought this car after my previous car had been written off during a test run after being serviced – but that’s a while different story!!) I was single, sharing a house with my cousin and her kids, and originally bought it to keep for a few years before trading it in for a newer car. This car really gave me my freedom. I regularly drove to Byron Bay, Ballina, the Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, all sorts of places to fulfill my need to get out and see the world.

A few years later moved on from the chaos of living with 4 kids. My car and I both sighed with relief and the simplicity of driving around just 1 person as we shifted lots of boxes and things to my new unit. I moved 3 more times filling my car to its eyeballs. I am a teacher and have lots of books and resources.

This little car helped move my parents out of their family home to a property about 1.5 hrs drive from where they had been living. Loaded up to the eyeballs, it just got on with the job, purring up the highway trip after trip – at least a dozen times!! Full to the roof of boxes and plants it never slowed, and never faulted. Such a good car.

This car helped me move into my first home, again filled to the brim with boxes and things, although this time only a 20 mins drive. Again, without fault or complaint.
When we (my DH and Step daughter) moved into our new house, my car was filled with the crystal, and valuables – it had the easy job this time!!
From here my car and I enjoyed a pleasant drive to work –a 50 min drive through the back of Mt Cotton to the outer edges of Brisbane – Something I did for 6.5 years.
My Daughter (technically my step daughter, but she’s my kid to love and look after) learnt to drive in my car. After crashing her biological mum’s car (a long story) she never wanted to learn to drive. But with persistence, and patience, she learnt to drive. We spent weekend after weekend driving from our home to Macca’s, 45 mins away, for coffee & cake clocking up her 100 hours of driving practice. We did this trip so many times I think the car could have driven home itself! And, I filled so many coffee loyalty cards!!
This little car stepped up and became my daughter’s security blanket when she started to learn highway merging. The first time we went driving on the highway – to visit my mum in hospital after a knee replacement. The car never faulted as it climbed up to speed. With a few tear’s, shakey hands and feet, we ventured out onto the highway. She pulled it off and kept motoring down the highway gaining confidence with every lane change and onramp merge.
But this little car just kept on going, on and on. When I upgraded to a newer, comfier model, it became my daughter’s first car.
She also drove this car all sorts of places – the Sunshine coast, the Gold Coast, Byron Bay and further south. She gained confidence and the freedom to get out and explore the world as she travelled to music concerts, festivals, the beach with her friends. Often full of camping gear, dirt, plants, all sorts of things. This little car just kept on carrying on. My daughter moved a few times and again the little car was filled with bags and plants. Parked on a busy city street, the car’s life slowed down as she rode her bike to work.
Finally, we moved her last few things for storage at my parent’s place before she moved overseas last week - it’s last job. This time, the car wasn’t full – only a few bags in the boot; the backseat was empty. The car was starting to slow, & I think it knew things weren’t good. With heavy hearts we the car was sold to a dealer on the way home. Its plates removed and the registration cancelled.
When I bought this car, I never realised it would play such an important part in my life. In hindsight, It was a very good decision.
 
Again I just want to say I'm blown away by everyone's willingness to write over 200 words, the honesty and openness. I'm happy I could hear a little part of all your lives!!
 
The journaling is 245 words and it's a rather small font, so the story is added in the gallery.



When I posted my layout I realised there's two ways to look at our story.
While writing it I focused on what would have happened if we hadn't taken that gamble 8 years ago. But now the page is finished I am so thankful that everything did work out in the end. So hindsight is 20/20 after all.
 
finally here is my page....436 word



I will be a career woman, that's what I promised myself from the age of 20.
No matter what I will do I want to be in a senior position that includes the title - "manager", "Deputy director" or any other career management degree.But at that age I still didn't understand the significance of the price that one degree or another would charge from me in the future. Life started rolling in and by the time I was 25, I was the mother of two beautiful children who made me realize that all I wanted was to stay home raising them.That's how I found myself drawn to the digital design and digital scrapbooking world and to design and sell my own digital kits. and I even had the time to bring a third child and continue working from home and develop my business ... because I promised myself that I would be a career woman and I found a fun way to do it.
At age 35 when the children were already grown, I thought it was time for more than that, that it was time to develop and make a career outside the home. so I found myself quitting my work in the digital design world and going out into the job market. From work to work, from job to job, I grew and progressed to become a manager at a major fashion chain. The job required me to give up almost completely on my time at home with my family and I did not even had time for myself. Most of the day, including weekends, I spent at work - because my dream is to be a career woman.
About six months ago, I woke up from this dream and realised that if I will look at the last years in sober eyesight - a career woman is really not what I want to be. The price I payed to fulfil a dream does not justify continuity.
This is when I woke up and decided to retire my job and come back to the comfortable and good life I had when I was a stay-home mom, been abele to welcoming the children when they come home after a long day, cooking and cleaning the house, a mom who has time for herself and her family.
Looking back, I realised that I didn't need a degree or any title to be happy with my life and fulfilled myself. I'm happy now with what I do in my everyday life, with raising my kids, with my scrapbooking - THIS IS MY REAL CAREER - so I'm definitely a career women in my eyes.
 
This challenge was hard because the only thing I could think about was too painful to write about... until the following happened. Ha! Anyway, it's 266 words... And yes, I did fix the typo. :blush

 
Thanks for the challenge! I have journalled 270 words in this tale of a Mum who expected a good reaction from the wrong thing, haha!!

 
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