April Buske

 I’m April and welcome to this little blog I’m pouring into these days. I’ve always felt compelled to write and have mostly done so through technical writing, with my background in training and instructional design. Now, I work in ministry and most of my writing is still curriculum. So, what better outlet of the drive to write than a blog.

My hope, through this blog, is to share my stories and hopefully, just hopefully, help someone else who is either trying to conceive or working in ministry or a combination thereof. I’m not perfect by any sense of the word, so I hope you will show some grace as you take this journey with me.

Juggling transparency while keeping my private life private. The person asking “how can I pray for you” that is actually code for “I want the scoop“. It makes this ministry calling even harder than it was before.

For the quick down and dirty story of what’s going on:

My husband and I have been trying to conceive since we got married, so we’re dealing with several years of ‘trying’ and unsolicited advice from all kinds of people – most of whom are generally well-meaning.  Also, there are a number of ways that working in ministry also impacts the trying to conceive journey.  Juggling transparency while keeping my private life private. The person asking “how can I pray for you” that is actually code for “I want the scoop“. It makes this ministry calling even harder than it was before.

After a year of trying on our own without any success, we consulted my OB/GYN. We did a few rounds of Clomid (a drug that helps women produce more follicles, which are what house the eggs) and hit the “right times” before being referred to a reproductive endocrinologist (RE). Our RE is amazing and she has done a lot to ensure we have all the facts, details and emotional information we need.  Through our RE, we’ve done several rounds of Clomid with a trigger (a trigger shot is used to force ovulation) and IUIs (intrauterine insemination).  Each of our IUIs has been unsuccessful and now are considering the other options before us. We’re exploring a multitude of different options such as adoption and in-vitro fertilization (IVF – where the egg and sperm are matched in a lab and embryos are transferred to the uterus after they’ve incubated a bit).

We’ve been doing the IUI protocol for about a year, so I’m still getting the hang of the lingo and the facts, but I’ll do my best to make things as understandable as possible without distracting from stories.

Here’s what you can entries about:

• Infertility and trying to conceive
• Ministry life and some of the things we’re doing at our wonderful church
• Bible reflections
• Married life & some of the things we do to stay sane
• Our adorable mini schnockerpoo Nelly

Here’s Nelly (ignore the junk in the background, please):

I’ll do my best to write regularly. I appreciate your grace and patience as I get my sea-legs with blogging.  Thanks for reading so far, I can’t wait to share more with you in the future!