Dear Santa...

Dear Santa,

Since the Holiday season is upon us, we wanted to take a minute to write to you. As you well know, this is our 5th Christmas hoping and wishing for the same gift. The gift that we are asking for is not one that you will bring to put under our tree on Christmas Eve. We have been waiting, praying, and hoping for a little baby to be in our arms. The wait has not been an easy one and we will surely have hard times moving forward in this journey. We have tried to wait as patiently as possible as many of our family and friends have had children. We are always so excited for them to grow their families, however, we are wanting to receive this same gift. We know you can't bring us a baby for Christmas; they are a gift that has to come from Heavenly Father in the right time. However, as we are just months away from starting the IVF process there are a few other things we would ask for:

1. We have worked really hard to save the funds to make it possible to do IVF. As we are on the final stretch of saving we ask for the gift of perseverance to make it to the amount we need. We have had setbacks come up in the past and if some more come up we need to be able to make it through as we have in the past, and be able to make it so we can have this opportunity to have a child.

2. As the time has drawn closer to start the procedure the anxiety has been building. So many thoughts of "What if..." keep coming to mind and the thought that the procedure may not work the first time is hard to bear after so much work and waiting has been put into trying just one time. That being said, we ask for the gift of peace, to know that no matter what happens it will be what is meant to be. May we have the peace to know that if things don't go as planned that everything will be alright, it won't be the end of our journey, and something will work out in the right time.

3. The final thing we will ask for is for the gift of continued hope and faith. Even though it will be another Christmas without the gift we have been longing for the most, we would like the gift of hope and faith to remember that we have so many amazing things that will be happening in the future. Heavenly Father has made us a promise and He always keeps His promises. We will have a baby when the time is right.

We hope you have a Merry Christmas,

Amberly and Taylor