How Many Times Do I Need To Be Kicked in the Head?

I'm an English teacher.  I even just finished teaching Slaughterhouse Five for about the hundredth time. In the contest between fate and free will, fate wins.  Intellectually and philosophically, I accept this. There are multiple examples of fate controlling things in my life, from career choice, to meeting Carol, to the liquid nitrogen ice cream shop opening within 20 minutes of me.  Why, then, can't I get it through my thick skull that we are not destined to be successful with ETs?

History:  

We put Orchis in training after her W foal, deciding we would get her sport predicate and try some ETs.  Four or five attempts later, we had multiple embryos, none of which stuck in a recipient mare.  Circumstances occurred so that we pulled her out of training, but the repeated flushes and change in jobs for her resulted in a mare who didn't get pregnant again for two years. 

We had the chance to sell Werites (that W foal mentioned above) to a top international trainer.  We agreed with the caveat that we get at least one foal from her via ET.  Our first series of attempts in North Carolina resulted in multiple embryos, none of which stuck in the recipient mares.  We shipped her to a specialist.  Three cycles later, she had produced no embryos.  We gave up and were shipping her back for training when Jimmy Welsh, of Elite Horse Transport, crippled her while transporting her, basically leaving her injured in a van in Pennsylvania, and finally costing us over $30,000. for her care and rehab at New Bolton. Not only did he never cover the cost of treating her, he didn't even refund the shipping fee, even though he brought her only half the distance and left it to us to figure out how to get the injured mare to New Bolton.

Fast forward to this year.  We were fortunate enough to breed two incredible Totilas daughters from Orchis, Galearites SSF and Honorites SSF.  We decided one of the mares belonged in sport and one in the breeding program.  As you've probably read, Nora fell on the ice, broke her pelvis, and had to be put down this winter.  So...Carol and I decided we really wanted to preserve the genetics--we would try ET one more time with Mazey.  We pulled out of training, took her to a super vet clinic, paid the reservation for a recipient mare with Dr. Foss, and were already to go.  First stallion choice turned out to have crappy frozen.  Once cycle down.  Second cycle was great, got an embryo, it made it into the recipient mare, was there for the 15 day check, gone at that 30 day check.  Third cycle, good frozen, no embryo.  Mazey had now been at the vet clinic for almost two months.  We bring her back to Jane Hannigans, giving up on the idea of ET.  While Jane and I are talking recently, we decide it's worth trying one more time with fresh cooled, and I will drive Mazey to the clinic for the flush.  Mazey comes into heat, vet gives me the go ahead to order semen for Tuesday delivery, I order from the most fertile stallion I can find, and FedEx loses the shipment--we miss the cycle.  

I'm not going to go through this diatribe and try to calculate how much money we have spent on our ET attempts over the last 13 years, but suffice it to say, we could have purchased multiple foals in Holland and imported them.  

So, I guess I have my answer.  I have to be kicked in the head about fourteen times to get it.

Update:  FedEx ignored Meghan's request to return the shipment to ISF and delivered it to Larkspur Farm a day late.  Jane decided to have the vet out to check the semen and check and see if Mazey still had her follicle.  Uno Don Diego has incredible semen--still lots of swimmers.  Mazey still had a huge, soft follicle.  We head for TNT Equine on Wednesday night for a 6 am flush on Thursday.  Thank you, Jane Hannigan and Dr. Amy.