Theodore Roosevelt

Yesterday was one of those tough days where I had to work very hard not to cry in publc places. It just felt like one of those days where the weight of the world was bearing down. Bry and I were talking about all the stress of our upcoming IVF. I was trying to explain how I was stressing about the fact that I feel like most of the outcomes were so crappy. I am petrified that we will not get picked from the donor list and won't be able to even try IVF and I am even more petrified that we will try IVF and it won't work. I said that I couldn't decide whether it would be less stressful if we didn't try because then I at least have hope for the future (I don't really believe this, it was the stress talking). Bry reminded me that it is always better to try and fail than not try.

Then, as we sifted through our cards and letters, I found this sheet of paper with a couple of quotes from my Dad. This one from Teddy Roosevelt really resonated:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."