Fun at The Walk of Hope

Well, I did it! On Saturday, I went to the Nor Cal Walk of Hope and it was an awesome experience. I had a little bit of a hard time leaving the house Saturday morning, as I have been having a bit of agoraphobia/anxiety lately as a result of the massive fire near our home. Knowing that DH would be home to take care of our animals and that I would be meeting my sister and a new friend at the walk got me moving though.

***pregnancies, babies, loss and children mentioned***

I got to the State Capitol at 9am and met up with my sister and niece, checked in and then walked around a bit. There were booths for the local IF clinics and they were giving out all kinds of free gifts; water bottles, t-shirts, pens and paper, reusable grocery bags with their logos on them and Resolve was giving away free FRERs and OPKs! (I may have taken more than just one of each, not gonna lie) There were also booths for support groups, a raffle for an IVF cycle and acupuncture (sadly I didn't win) and a booth for The Art of IF.

 

 

Then, a new friend Janell, met up with us. Janell is an acquaintance of my sister, who happened to see all of the posts of mine that my sister shared on FB. Janell contacted me about a month ago, through my sister, to offer up her extra meds from her first IVF cycle. Unfortunately, although her first beta was ok, her numbers never doubled and she got the call Saturday morning that they were back to zero. It was really nice to meet someone in real life who is going through all this crap!

Around 10am the Resolve staff and MC for the event started the rally and the Sac State cheerleaders got everyone warmed up for the walk. There were prizes awarded to the team with the most people, best dressed fur baby and the team that raised the most money for the Resolve. Then it was time for the walk to begin. Everyone lined up with their teams and walked through a big group of cheerleaders cheering us on. It was like at a football game, when they announce the players and they run through the double lines of cheerleaders - pretty cool!

One of the cool things was that there were women with babies and pregnant women there as well. When I saw the first pregnant woman, I thought it was kind of weird but then I saw her shirt that read: "5 Years and 4 Cycles of IVF" it was written across her baby bump. The back of her shirt read: "Don't ever give up." I love to see that those who have struggled with IF don't just leave the rest of us behind. We are still supported and cheered on by those who have finally had success.

It was a really cool experience and a well attended event and I am so glad I was able to be a part of it. While I did expect that maybe the organizers would have petitions for changing IF coverage laws, there weren't, so I passed out all of my little cards for my own petition and people seemed genuinely interested in signing.