This is the last...sniff...roundup of the year. Next week will mark the one year anniversary and we'll have the huge celebration roundup list. So take some time this weekend to review your assigned blog and pick out your favourite post. Oh...right...and send it to me when you're done so I don't hound you mid-week... It's due July 17th so I have enough time to layout the list.

I loved making that Choose-Your-Own-Blog-Adventure post this week. It took a shitload of time, but it was totally worth it. I went to bed giddy. And now I'm going to send Sharon off on many adventures including a baby shower that goes in twenty different directions. Which means that if you are subscribed with bloglines for the Annex, you may want to cancel that account. Just so I can upload the posts backwards and make the linkage and not have the stories ruined for you.

And getting to the point of this post quickly for the first time in forever...the blogs:

Geohde at Mission: Impossible finished her last viva (oral medical exams) last week and had a great post about the final exam. As luck would have it, she got the ideal situation to diagnose for any infertile doctor-to-be: "Yesterday, one of my stations was meant to be a 20 year old woman with a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Her opening line was that she had some tummy ache. Her facial expression was closer to severe constipation. Additionally, she was at least 50." The post is more entertaining and informative than Grey's Anatomy. Head over and read the whole post.

Mary Ellen at Our IVF Journey has a very moving post about this last cycle. She is the little engine that could--so many of us are little engines that could. And you need to read this post because while it mourns this last loss, it also celebrates the road ahead. The determination of a couple who will become parents because they are charting their own path and knocking out the obstacles in their way. Mary Ellen has a beautiful thought in the middle of the post: "We know that we have a much better chance with donor, especially since I have gotten pregnant twice in 4 cycles, and that once we hold our baby for the first time, DNA just isn't going to matter. Besides, BT and the insanely high risk of IF and recurrent pregnancy loss is something that we wouldn't wish on our worst enemy, let alone our child. We believe that it was not meant to be passed on, and while our child may have issues with the fact that they are donor concieved despite our best efforts to give them a happy and stable home life, they will likely never know the pain and torture of infertility and recurrent miscarriage and never have to worry about passing this horrendous genetic disorder onto their children. I know that I could have never forgiven myself if I had to watch our child go through what we have been through." And that's why she is already a mother in my book: she cares for her not-yet baby so much that she is willing to do anything to bring him or her safely into this world. And that is a pretty amazing thing to read.

There is still time to hop on-board for the Impatient Patient's World Tour which debuts this upcoming Monday. Even if you don't put your hometown on the map, click around to see everywhere from California to Tasmania. How do you join the world tour? Simple! Read this post and follow the handy directions: write a post/add photos, email Patience a link to the post, and she will upload the link on the World Tour page. So go run around town and take photos. And travel from the comfort of your computer on Monday (you may want to email Patience or leave her a comment if you plan on joining along so she can guesstimate how many links will be coming in).

And a new feature: Line-of-the-Week. The line that made me spit out my coffee when I started laughing: "They said you were crazy. You were, kid. Just crazy enough" (from Infertile Fantasies).

Goodbye first year of the Roundup. 52 posts, several hundred blogs, and a lot of great writing. Meet back here next week to kick off a new year of Roundup with a linky list of love.