Thankful Thursday - This one is pretty obvious

Know what time it is? It's thankful Thursday time! We checked into the Hole one week ago and it's time to celebrate a little thankful Thursday! We all have so much to be thankful for and we love to take this opportunity just to write down each and everything that comes to mind. as I mentioned last week, I no longer have the "linky tools" but I invite you to share your thankful blog in the comments section. Without further ado, here's what we're thankful for:

Mandi's List:

I'm SO thankful that my God is one that is faithful and answers prayers. We have been praying that He would guide us through our IVF process, and man did He come through big time. A smooth diagnostic period, Ronnie having swimmers, and good little swimmers to boot, just the right number of embryos, and pregnant the first cycle. I am so thankful that this process isn't in my control (holy smokes, did you just hear this type A actually say that?!) and that I have a God who is so good, who's guiding this! I am so thankful to be blessed with this baby/these babies!!

I'm thankful for butt rubs. Any lady that has ever done progesterone shots (or anyone who has had oil-based shots before) knows what I'm talking about. Those suckers start to leave a lasting impressions after a few weeks worth. My butt has bit lumps and bumps of oil trapped (and some gnarly bruises) and it feels like heaven to have my loving hubby rub my sore spots to get some of the oil broken down and out of there.

I'm thankful for coffee. Gasp. "You're drinking coffee?!" you're thinking. No. I am not. And that is why I'm thankful for it. I miss it like mad right about now. As many of you know, weekend mornings while Ronnie is in the hospital are Dunkin Donuts mornings. And the smell of coffee in the morning makes my heart happy. Unfortunately I can't partake, but you better believe I'm going to pound the coffee in approximately 9 months. I am so thankful for this tasty drink. Have an extra cup for me this morning!!

I'm thankful for hospital stays. The hospital is always a nice time for Ronnie and I to relax together and hang out with his family. Sure we still work, and we can get a little cabin fever, but I always enjoy the quality time that hospital stays bring. I'm thankful for hospital traditions and fun experiences. We always leave with many, many good memories and some funny stories. I'm thankful that we can enjoy each other, and life, anywhere.

Ronnie's List:

I guess my first one's a little obvious, but I'm really thankful that were pregnant! We're approaching this cautiously optimistic as we know nothing is for sure until were holding our baby (or babies) in our arms, but for now we're just in the celebrate this miracle. We heard all along that this would be quite the journey and I'm just so thankful that our road was pretty smooth. I don't think it could have gone any better and we're just praying that in nine months or so the Sharpe clan gets a bit bigger! We can't thank you enough for your thoughts and prayers, we literally felt every single one of them.

I'm so thankful for the research teams out there working their butt off to make the lives of my friends so much better. As I'm sure you've heard, the pharmaceutical company Vertex just announced very positive results from their phase 3 drug study of the compound VX770. This little blue pill did very well and we're all excited for the future. It is shown to increase lung function, decrease exacerbations, increase weight and a host of other positive things simply by opening up the chloride channel on our cells. Now, I must point out that this drug is for a specific mutation that effects about 4% of our population, but they're very optimistic that this is the start to something great for the entire community! I'm super excited for my friends with the G551D mutation and I can't wait until this drug is released in 2012. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the FDA gets on the ball and approves this thing.

I'm thankful that after a week in the Hole I've turned the corner and improving bit by bit everyday. You never quite know how things are going here, but I'm confident I have nowhere but up! I'm going to start testing my lungs pretty soon here by running laps from a hospital and sprinting up the staircase. I'm hoping not spring a leak aka hemoptysis aka my lungs bleeding, but I figure there's no better place to do it than in here. I'll be taking PFTs on Monday and I'm very hopeful that they'll be up from a week ago. I checked in here with an FEV1 of about 60% and I'm hoping that by the time I'm out it will be in the lower 70s. Maybe I'll even shoot for 75%! Sure wouldn't hurt to try.