Do you believe in magic?

There are people out there who are *gasp* able to get pregnant (and stay pregnant) very easily.  Then there are people that pour everything - financially and emotionally - into the process and cannot get (and stay) pregnant. 

There are lots of tools and methods now for couples "TTC" - tools that I used the month we got pregnant... Basal Body Thermometers.  Ovulation Predictor Kits.  Cerival mucus checks (yea, I went there...) 
Tools that science has created - tools that have helped women whose blogs I've read get pregnant - Intra Uterine Insemination (IUI's).  In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF).

When all you want in the world is a "take home baby,"  you find yourself able to do what needs to be done.  Even while you've got THOSE aforementioned women - who have unprotected sex once (see example here!) and find themselves pregnant, expected or not / wanted or not -  These women scoff at all your hard work, calling your baby-making process "scientific and cold" and scorn you for "taking the magic out of it all."

Yes, the whole conception thing - 1 sperm out of 20million makes it to an egg, and against all odds a baby is created, a living and breathing human being - it's a miracle and magical.  But sometimes the process to get there is not all "magic and baby dust and unicorns."  I came across a post that so succinctly put what I'm trying to say - so with permission from the author (and some punctuation fixes - can't help it, english nerd lol):

At least for me, creating a baby isn’t about magic: it’s about love.   And real love is hard work. Butterflies are great, but butterflies can’t carry the weight that life brings, not all of the time. Real love requires conscious decisions and conscious effort.   

I don’t think that I lost my first baby because I didn’t work hard enough for him, or didn’t love him enough or didn’t plan enough. I don’t think I’ll ever know why. I don’t know if I’ll get pregnant again, but I know that I’m not willing to leave it to “magic.” It’s too important for that.

Some people say that using OPKs and charts and thermometers takes the magic out of it.

And to that I say, “Take all of the magic away. I don’t need magic. I will work for this.”

I want my future son or daughter to know that I loved them so much that I was willing to work for it every single day. Whether he or she comes to me through natural conception, with the help of modern medicine, or through adoption, I want him or her to know that I loved them too much to leave it to magic. I took my temperature first thing in the morning, I peed on sticks several times a day, I took vitamins for months...

Thank you again, JennOH, for putting it so perfectly!  And here's to our BBTs, OPKs, PNVs and take home babies!