I just got back from three back to back two hour dance recital performances, amazed by the transformation I am seeing in my formerly frozen embryo.
Although I had seen her perform most of the dances in her competitions this year, I still couldn’t imagine missing one of the shows.
Watching her grow this year in confidence, standing taller, smiling bigger, and challenging herself with six days a week of classes has made me so proud.
My commitment during our days of being Almost A Father is paying huge dividends (as are the lessons by the amazing dance teachers at Creative Dance Arts)
I think about how close I came to giving up that commitment after our fifth IVF failed.
I didn’t want to fly back to New Jersey to thaw out two poor quality embryos.
Saying that makes me shudder now, seeing how much I would have missed.
Like Elliana’s elegant poppy ballet dance in the Wizard of Oz production today.
Or her amazing passionate lyrical dance to “Hallelujah”.
I would have missed all of this, if I hadn’t made the final commitment to never stop trying.
I had no idea how we were going to pull off that second trip to New Jersey, but I found a way to make all the details work out, and Lisa found the energy and passion reserve to go out for her last two frozen embryos.
After that cycle worked, I was committed to making Lisa as comfortable as possible during the pregnancy.
When I found myself caring for Elliana the night she was born because Lisa’s c-section recovery took a dangerous turn for the worse, I was committed to never leaving her side the entire night.
Watching the Wizard in the ballet tonight reminded me of another commitment I made two years ago.
At the last minute apparently one of the men slated to play the step sister in that year’s production ballet of Cinderella apparently bailed out.
The studio was in a bind, and apparently Lisa had shared my history of being on the stage in high school and college, not to mention a little New York City and Nashville.
You guessed it.
Yours truly was dressed in drag, and purposely dancing incredibly poorly with the Prince (the same fellow who played the Wizard tonight) to woo him at the ball to no avail.
A huge commitment that most men would have the sense to turn down?
Absolutely.
Worth every minute to be on stage with my formerly frozen embyro?
You betcha.
Committed almost a fathers become committed fathers.
Hope your days of committed fatherhood are just around the corner.
Without the commitment to wearing a muumuu and wearing clownish makeup in the role of Cinderella’s evil stepsister.