Thursday, March 21, 2013
March 2013 ICLW
Happy ICLW everyone! Welcome to the first time visitors as well as old friends. ICLW stands for "International Comment Leaving Week", in case you didn't know.
A little about our story: Babe (hubby) and I have been trying for a baby since February 2004. We were first diagnosed with "unexplained infertility". Since then we have tried just about everything - Clo.mid, surgeries for uterine polyps, 4 IUIs, and 4 failed IVFs, with the last one in July 2011. My RE determined that we have low egg quality, probably due to age. However, we have been trying since I was 30, a year after our wedding. So I wonder if it had always been an egg issue. I guess we will never truly know.
Since then, we have gone down the path of adoption. We were in the process of completing our home study for an international adoption with the US Marshall Islands, but right before we completed the home study process, we decided we to pursue embryo adoption instead. Since making this decision, we encountered a roadblock with our home study as our agency decided that they would not allow us to complete our home study for embryo adoption. After looking into other agencies, our current agency has agreed to complete the home study, but with the condition that they transfer it to another adoption agency for the embryo adoption process. This has been a long and frustrating process. Currently, we have seen a draft of our home study report, and are just waiting for the formal approved home study.
In the mean time, we have an appointment in May for our initial visit to NEDC, the agency/clinic that we will be adopting our embryos from. We are hoping to be matched soon, and for our embryo transfer to either be in July or September.
I'm hoping for some updates soon, so stay tuned! Don't forget to visit the other bloggers participating in this month's ICLW.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Almost There
Sorry I've been quiet for a bit. I got hit by the flu bug last week. I'm on day 5 and am still pretty much out of commission. Had chills, fever, fatigue, body ache and headaches. Fortunately I did not get the nasty upper respiratory stuff - no cough, congestion or stuffy nose, thankfully. I'm just really tired all the time now, but I'm also tired of laying around all day. At least today, I did not spend the whole day sleeping in bed. Instead, spent the day on the couch watching TV and finally getting some of my appetite back.
Last week, we finally received a draft of our home study. It was emailed to us by Old Agency via their secured email system. It was pretty interesting. I received and email that said I had a message but had to log into the agency's secured site to view the email. I almost deleted the email because it ended up in my spam box. We took a couple of days to review the home study both for grammar and accuracy.
I'm not sure how many of you have actually seen what a home study looks like, but it was kind of funny reading what someone you've only met a few times write about you and your family based on your answers on your home study questionnaire, your interviews and what your referrals say about you. You can definitely tell that a lot of what was written in the home study was a copy and paste of the answers we provided in our questionnaires. It was also quite obvious that the report was a standardized form a social worker fills out as there were some references to "Jane Doe" that they missed taking out. There was also some reference to an "outside door to the deck that would be secured" when we definitely do not have a deck. It was also interesting that there were some assumptions made that we would have a will and in the event that something happens to both of us, our assets would be equally divided among any adopted and biological children. Never once did we discuss having a will with the social worker nor how we would divide up our assets.
Anyway, all in all, the home study was well written and favorable. The final recommendation was that the agency would recommend that we be approved for our adoption home study for up to two children (also never discussed with us). So Babe and I reviewed it, made some corrections and updates, and sent it back to the agency last Thursday. We have not heard anything back yet from them, but hope to get a formal copy of the home study sometime this week.
We are almost there!
Last week, we finally received a draft of our home study. It was emailed to us by Old Agency via their secured email system. It was pretty interesting. I received and email that said I had a message but had to log into the agency's secured site to view the email. I almost deleted the email because it ended up in my spam box. We took a couple of days to review the home study both for grammar and accuracy.
I'm not sure how many of you have actually seen what a home study looks like, but it was kind of funny reading what someone you've only met a few times write about you and your family based on your answers on your home study questionnaire, your interviews and what your referrals say about you. You can definitely tell that a lot of what was written in the home study was a copy and paste of the answers we provided in our questionnaires. It was also quite obvious that the report was a standardized form a social worker fills out as there were some references to "Jane Doe" that they missed taking out. There was also some reference to an "outside door to the deck that would be secured" when we definitely do not have a deck. It was also interesting that there were some assumptions made that we would have a will and in the event that something happens to both of us, our assets would be equally divided among any adopted and biological children. Never once did we discuss having a will with the social worker nor how we would divide up our assets.
Anyway, all in all, the home study was well written and favorable. The final recommendation was that the agency would recommend that we be approved for our adoption home study for up to two children (also never discussed with us). So Babe and I reviewed it, made some corrections and updates, and sent it back to the agency last Thursday. We have not heard anything back yet from them, but hope to get a formal copy of the home study sometime this week.
We are almost there!
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Trip Booked!
Yup, we have our trip to Knoxville booked for May!
For the last couple of weeks, I have been looking at flights, hotel and car rentals. I looked at Kay.ak, Orbi.tz, Travelo.city, airline websites, hotel websites and car rental websites and did price comparisons in every possible way. I was surprised to see that Delta actually added some flights within our price range, and even leaving on Monday which would be ideal for us. So now we are planning on flying into Knoxville on Monday and fly back home on Wednesday afternoon after our appointment at NEDC.
After looking at all the different options, I found that it is cheaper to book the flight, hotel and car rental all together in a package via Orbi.tz. Last night, we booked our flight for 2 out to Knoxville, 2 nights hotel and 2 days car rental for less than $990. We saved around $100, maybe more compared to booking the flight, hotel and car separately.
I know it may be kinda early to book yet (I've been told the best time to buy a plane ticket is about 45 days prior to departure), I saw that there were only 3 plane tickets left at the price we wanted, so I didn't want to risk missing out on it. After I booked our package, I tried booking another package, just to check out the prices again. For the exact same package, the price went up $130. Thank goodness we grabbed those plane tickets when we did.
So, we are set to go for this trip! Now I just got to complete our paperwork that we need to bring with us to NEDC, and pray that our home study with Old Agency will be completed soon.
For the last couple of weeks, I have been looking at flights, hotel and car rentals. I looked at Kay.ak, Orbi.tz, Travelo.city, airline websites, hotel websites and car rental websites and did price comparisons in every possible way. I was surprised to see that Delta actually added some flights within our price range, and even leaving on Monday which would be ideal for us. So now we are planning on flying into Knoxville on Monday and fly back home on Wednesday afternoon after our appointment at NEDC.
After looking at all the different options, I found that it is cheaper to book the flight, hotel and car rental all together in a package via Orbi.tz. Last night, we booked our flight for 2 out to Knoxville, 2 nights hotel and 2 days car rental for less than $990. We saved around $100, maybe more compared to booking the flight, hotel and car separately.
I know it may be kinda early to book yet (I've been told the best time to buy a plane ticket is about 45 days prior to departure), I saw that there were only 3 plane tickets left at the price we wanted, so I didn't want to risk missing out on it. After I booked our package, I tried booking another package, just to check out the prices again. For the exact same package, the price went up $130. Thank goodness we grabbed those plane tickets when we did.
So, we are set to go for this trip! Now I just got to complete our paperwork that we need to bring with us to NEDC, and pray that our home study with Old Agency will be completed soon.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Gender Reveal Party
Right after my post about getting more adoption paperwork from New Agency, a friend led me to this post called "Adoption Forms, it Takes a Forest". Couldn't help but laugh because it is all so true, and can totally relate!
Today, I was invited to a gender reveal party. Have you ever been invited to one? I once saw pictures of cakes for gender reveal parties on Pint.erest, but I've never been to one. One of the gals from our Patiently Waiting infertility group, Mel, is finally pregnant after a few rounds of IVF. They had their 20-week ultrasound, had the doctor write the gender of the baby on a piece of paper and sealed it in an envelope together with an ultrasound picture of the scan. They then gave the envelope to a friend who baked the cake with pink or blue frosting in the middle of the cake.
Here's picture of the cake, all handmade including the booties on top of the cake. It was very delicious!
So what is she having? She's gonna have a baby.....
Pink frosting!! It's a GIRL!! Congrats proud momma & daddy!
Today, I was invited to a gender reveal party. Have you ever been invited to one? I once saw pictures of cakes for gender reveal parties on Pint.erest, but I've never been to one. One of the gals from our Patiently Waiting infertility group, Mel, is finally pregnant after a few rounds of IVF. They had their 20-week ultrasound, had the doctor write the gender of the baby on a piece of paper and sealed it in an envelope together with an ultrasound picture of the scan. They then gave the envelope to a friend who baked the cake with pink or blue frosting in the middle of the cake.
Here's picture of the cake, all handmade including the booties on top of the cake. It was very delicious!
So what is she having? She's gonna have a baby.....
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Pink frosting!! It's a GIRL!! Congrats proud momma & daddy!
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