The goal I've had most consistently over the course of my life is to be a mom. I'm 43 years old and I've been trying to start my own family for nearly three years. After many IUIs and a failed egg retrieval, it's fairly apparent that my own eggs are lacking. I still desperately want a baby (or two) and my doctors and I decided embryo adoption might be the solution. A close friend of mine had two embryos remaining after completing her family and let me adopt them. The first didn't take and I had a very early pregnancy loss with the second. Despite that major setback, my doctor assured me that an early loss is fairly common and that I've now proven that I am able to get pregnant.
I'm unmarried and not in a relationship, but I live with my mother, so there would be two adults helping to raise a child. I moved in with her fifteen years ago when I started my current job. At the time we both needed a little monetary assistance, so it worked out beautifully. Within a couple years, we were both in a place that we didn't need each other financially, but neither of us has any desire to live alone and we're more friends now than just parent/child. Four years ago I bought a little rental house so that I could begin gaining equity of my own.
I drive city bus for a living and have been doing so for nineteen years (fifteen at my current company). It affords me the opportunity to choose how many hours I work. We pick new work twice a year. This gives me the ability to pick a 3 1/2 to 4 hour piece of work while my children are small, but go longer if I want or need to.
My family is fairly small, but we're very close. My brother is in the Navy, so while he is stationed far away, we still try to get together at least once a year (he, along with his wife and son are in the picture with me at Disneyland). We also grew up along side our two cousins (one of which is in the picture with me and one of her daughters at the Space Needle). I have two long term, very good friends who are nearly family. The first has been in my life since she was born when I was one. She has a three year old and a soon to be one year old, so my kids would grow up along side hers. My best friend has been in my life for twenty five years. I've been an aunt to her children as they've grown up. She and her husband are my travel buddies (when my mom isn't).
I'm definitely an introvert who enjoys my small, close knit family and few very good friends. I love puttering around my garden and going on my daily walks. But I also love to travel and experience new places. I have a goal to visit all the US national parks and I'm only about 1/6 of the way there, so I've got a lot of National Park travel in my future.
Adding children to my life would make it complete. It would add to a very close family and give me new travelling buddies, but most of all, it would make me the thing that I've always wanted to be, a mom.