About face?

Time for another quarterly check in.  I can never believe how much time passes between posts, but nothing was new to report.  We took a bit of a mental break from the process, as it is very straining emotionally.  If you have not dealt with infertility, you are lucky.  I wouldn't wish it on my enemy.

The break from adoption helped clear our heads a bit.  It also allowed me the chance to do some more research on options.  We have added another path as a potential way to 'adopt,' embryo adoption!

Don't get us wrong- we would still love to talk to expectant mothers and be considered as adoptive parents.  But we also don't believe we should limit ourselves.  We have wanted to be parents for almost 7 years!  (Well, maybe 5 years for Matt.)

Embryo adoption (or donation, seem to be used interchangeably  occurs when a couple has remaining embryos from an IVF cycle.  When they are done having kids themselves, they have 3 options: donate to science, donate to an infertile couple, or have the embryos destroyed.  Without getting into the religious ramifications of those options, we obviously believe that donating to another couple is a fantastic idea!

As with traditional adoption, the donation can be anonymous through a clinic, or you can 'meet' people online and donate to them.  There are adoption agencies out there that now assist with donations as well, but of course they add in several thousand dollars worth of "program fees."   (Important note:  it is illegal to pay or be paid for embryos.  But call them 'program fees,' no problem.  ........)

Some of our considerations now include what clinics to look at (local ones have wait lists, there are some in FL, TN and CA that are well-known that do not, but you have to travel to them), finding donors ourselves (similar to finding our own match for traditional adoption), and whether we'd want an open or anonymous donation (leaning again towards open).  The best part about embryo donation is that the cost is significantly lower than using an adoption agency (about equal to the cost of a private adoption), and significantly cheaper than IVF as well.

So, we are looking into both options now, praying to make a connection with either an expectant mother or a couple looking to donate.  If you know of anyone who fits either bill, please contact us!

And thanks for reading our sporadic posts!

Dirty 30!

So this has been a fun month.  I turned 30, and Matt is still 29, so he has been counting down the days (for months now)!  haha  He loves to point out that I'm the older lady.  Ah well, I love 30!

Celebrating the big 3-0 with my aunt and family friend

One of the best parts of the month was my parents coming down to surprise me the weekend of my birthday!  They flew in (with another aunt and uncle) on Saturday, and had to fly back out on Sunday.  How lucky am I?!  Unfortunately, no pics of that day.

Another thing that I loved about this birthday, and want to make an annual thing was celebrating 30 by doing 30 Random Acts of Kindness.  This was nothing crazy or expensive, just 30 things to make someone else smile or have a good day.  One of my favorites was hiding a $1 bill in the toy bin at Dollar Tree.

Wish I could have seen the kid's face when they found this!

I also asked friends and family on Facebook to join in, and that was the best part--  hearing the stories of what others did.  People bought groceries for strangers, donated baby clothes to a new mom in need, volunteered, held doors, made things, and more.  It was awesome!

Vending machine money, care of Pam C.

Other than the big birthday, it's been a quiet month.  Matt and I both got sick again (after the flu in November, we thought we were good for this season!), so getting over that still.  Matt gets to go home in a few weeks for great friend's wedding.  And we can't wait for the Super Bowl this weekend, even though both of our teams (Giants and Panthers) didn't even make the playoffs this year.  Go commercials!

Team spirit, even though they lose a lot!