Approved and working on lifebook

We got approved by the new adoption agency last week! Yay!
After that letter, we never got anything else explaining the next step. I called and it turns out they had checked off that we had turned in everything, even though we hadn't. It's good that I called, otherwise we would be in limbo for awhile.
The lifebook is basically a scrapbook with a dear birthmom letter, a profile page about us, and various pics of us, our house, vacations, etc...
We have to make 10 copies of it so that it can be passed out to 10 social workers our agency deals with, and then shown to birthmoms.
My original idea was to make an online book from snapfish, but since we need 10, I think we are going to have to do the old fashioned scrapbook with real pictures and no digital stuff. It has been about 8 years, maybe more, since we had pics developed. (actually, we had some for our wedding). We need no more than 10 pages, but they can be front to back. We also have to turn in our comfort level worksheet. This tells them what medical conditions in baby and birthmom we are willing to accept. Also things like drug and alcohol use and mental ilness.
THEN, we will be officially waiting again. I kind of want to develop some pics at walgreens tomorrow and just get this album done already. Otherwise, I know it is going to drag on and on. Eric and I don't have much time free together, so we have to cram a lot of stuff into our weekends off together.
More new news...I changed my shift at work to Mon-Fri night shifts and no weekends. This will start in January and will help us pay off some debt before the baby gets here. My manager said I can drop down to part time if full time gets to be too much once we get a baby, so that's good to know.

New application mailed today!

We FINALLY got the application for the new adoption agency mailed out today. There were a lot of little paperwork things we were waiting on, but now we can relax and wait to see if we are approved. If we are, then we can start working on our Lifebook soon. First, though, we need a new digital camera. I know there are some pics that we will need to take of our house, and our old camera just stopped working a few weeks ago, so we are scouting for deals. It's hard to decide between a small, easy to carry camera vs. a more expensive, bulkier, but much better quality camera. We'll prob. end up getting the better quality since I forsee our picture taking to increase dramatically in the near future. :)

Moving on with our Georgia adoption plans

After finding out today that our latest infertility treatment did not work... :( ...we are starting on our application for the adoption agency in Georgia. We also have to update our homestudy with our social worker, so this may take 3-4 weeks. Once we turn it in, we then move on to step two of the application which is creating a lifebook that the agency can show to pregnant moms wishing to adopt out. Creating the lifebook will take us a few weeks as well, so we are hoping to officially be waiting, again, by the end of December at the latest.

Yay! No Lymes Disease :)

Hazel officially does not have Lymes Disease. Yay! However, she prob has arthritis, in addition to the hip displaysia. Now, we have to wait and see how she does on the pain-killer and anti-inflammatories. If not better in a week or so, we may have to think about surgery, or try a diff. anti-inflammatory. I'm not even going to go there right now. I can't even imagine caring for a dog after hip surgery...especially with her sister dog being hyper and constantly trying to get her to play. Scarry. :[
As for me, I feel very Non-pregnant. Sad but true. I have no symptoms except my normal mid-luteal phase migraine today. Trying not to feel down, but it's hard sometimes when your body is not doing what you want it to do.
I work the next 4 nights (night shifts) so I am going to try to stop paying attention to my symptoms. I know that night shifts mess with my body and I can't trust how I feel when I am working them. If no period by Thursday, the 23rd, then I will test.

Lymes Disease, Hip Displaysia , What's next?!?

Hazel took another trip to the vet tonight, this time with Eric, and she may have Lymes disease. Apparently, they took Xrays and she has hip displaysia and her "Knees" have inflammation and fluid. No wonder she can barely walk! She is also running a temp, so they started her on antibiotics and a new pain killer. We will know if she has lymes disease in about a week or so. I really hope that's not it because I usually give the dogs their Frontline on the first of the month, but this month I ran out and forgot to get more, so now I feel really guilty. We'll just have to wait and see what the results show. It could also be early arthritis. She can't even jump up on our bed anymore, so I made her a bed on the floor of our bedroom. Poor girl! :(

Emergency Vet

Had to take Hazel into the emergency vet this morning. Yesterday she stopped walking and I would have to try to pick her up and drag her outside. She somehow hurt her back right leg (probably playing too hard with her hyper sister Gracie), and she was crying and shaking all night. It also doesn't help that Eric is away fishing this weekend and she misses him. This morning, it took her two hours to get out of bed, so I finally took her in. They gave her Midazolam (which caused her to walk around crashing into the walls and cabinets) :)
They also gave me some liquid ibuprophen to give her. If she's not getting better tomorrow, I have to take her to our vet for X-rays. Jeez, what is up with these animals around here lately? At least Gracie and Mrs. Kitchen are normal for now.
Not much new on the fertility front. Still pretty sore and it hurts when I walk or use my abs, but I remember last time it took about 8-9 days for that to go away, so we'll see how I feel in a few days. I rotate back to some night shifts at work starting Thursday, so that prob. won't help me feel better, but it's only until Sun. I go back for acupuncture 10/20.

Time to relax

The IUI's are done (had the last one today) and Eric's numbers were 3x higher than they were the last time we did this!!!! So, even though I had less eggs, we have a much better chance this cycle. Yay!!
I am pretty sore, so I will be spending the day on the couch. I go back again for acupuncture on Sat. to help with (cross your fingers) a possible implantation. :)

shots, shots, needles and shots

Whew, only one more shot to go...the HCG trigger shot that I will give myself tonight at work. This one I always dread because it hurts more than the follistim.
Good news, I called my doc after my appt. yesterday and expressed my concerns over just two eggs, and she decided to have me give one more big dose of follistim yesterday, so I will prob. ovulate 3 eggs now. I feel like my abdomen is going to explode, so I am pretty sure the follicles did lots of growing last night.
Tuesday I go back in for acupuncture. I have been going every three days, and she gave me "tacs" (little needles that stay in the skin between appts). I have bruises everywhere and will be glad when I am needle-free.
Now I have to go give my cat Shadow his insulin shot (he doesn't like shots, either) :)

Frustrating

Well, it turns out that since they lowered my dose, the medium-sized eggs stopped developing, so now I only have two that will probably ovulate. (both from the right) :( It's frustrating to think that we did all this for just two eggs, but hopefully that's all we need this time.
My IUI's are Monday and Tuesday morning

IUI's coming up soon

I'm on day #7 of my Folistim shots and am feeling pretty blah. I feel like I am coming down with the flu, but never get it. During my U/S today, they saw three large eggs on my right and 5-7 mini ones. On the left, I have two medium eggs and 5-7 mini ones. My estrogen level is pretty high: 1337 up from 230 just three days ago, so they are lowering my dose for the next few days so I don't produce too many more eggs.
The tenative dates for the IUI's are Monday and Tuesday of next week. Will know more after my appt. on Saturday.

Made up our minds

OK,
We've finally decided what we are going to do. We are for sure sticking with the adoption route and are planning to apply to the agency in Georgia that has you pick up your baby when they are two weeks old.
First, though, we are trying ONE more IUI/Injectible med cycle through our fertility clinic. I don't want to have to throw out the meds when they expire next year and thought it wouldn't hurt to give it one more shot. I am also doing acupuncture treatments around this IUI cycle, so hopefully that will help boost our chances. I start my first shot tonight. Wish us luck! :)

Decisions, Decisions

We met with our adoption social worker last night and discussed the prospect of domestic african-american infant adoption. We also requested information from our infertility clinic on IVF. I have both folders of information on my desk...both seem like the right way to go, and we are having a really hard time deciding which path to take.
If we go with IVF, we'd most likely do their money-back guarantee program (which involves three fresh and three frozen cycles). If we do domestic adoption, we'd probably go with one of two agencies in Georgia that our social worker deals with. The amazing thing is, once we would turn in our app. and create a lifebook, the wait is anywhere from one week to one year. Most families seem to wait about 4-6 months, and the baby would be a newborn. One agency has you go there once the baby is born, but if the mom changes her mind, you are already there and have to give the baby back. The other agency has you come down two weeks after the baby is born, once the birthmom has signed over her rights. This agency requires that we belong to a church and include a statement of faith.
We are both pretty 50/50 on the issues right now, so we are taking another week or so to weigh all our options.
We'll keep ya updated! :)

Lots of Changes: A New Path

Many changes have taken place this week...Ok, LOTS of changes have taken place. Eric and I thought long and hard, and realized that we just can't keep waiting for the Ethiopia program, and have decided to withdraw. So, what does this mean? Well, we are still figuring that out. We have both been awakened through this process to the fact that we really want a baby, yet don't want to have to miss out on those early months of their lives. The fact that we could have ended up with a baby that was 12 months at referral was in the back of our minds, but I don't think we ever really sat down and thought about what we would be missing if that were to happen.
Our options now are to get on a list for domestic adoptions, or try IVF. IVF was something that we had originally rulled out d/t our worry that it wouldn't work and we would be out all that money. However, there are several places that now offer money-back guarantees, and we are seriously starting to consider this if we decide to veer away from the adoption route.
While we silently mourn the baby from Ethiopia that could have been, we both know that a family will happen for us one day, one way or another.
To those of you who have been waiting with us through this journey, we are so grateful for the support and hope you will follow us onto our next endeavor.
All our love,
Leah and Eric

Sigh.....

I think I spoke too soon with my last post. We just received an email from our international adoption agency today that stated the current wait time for a referral is 12 months. There have been unexpected delays, and these could continue, but they will know more in a few months. So....for our situation, we can now expect a referral around April, 2009, and would travel around July, 2009.
Sigh......... :(

Referral timeframes

Just to give everyone an update on where we stand as far as when to expect a referral, the courts are still closed for the summer in Ethiopia, and not many referrals have been happening since June or so. They said that regular referrals should start happening again in September. Right now, there are still people waiting for one that have been waiting since October, 2007. We have been waiting since April, 2008, so it will probably still be awhile. I am thinking that around February 2009 is the most likely time for us to get a referral, and then the wait to travel is still anywhere from 10-15 weeks from then.
Just thought I'd update everyone and will post more when referrals start up again and we get a better idea!

Birthday/Anniversary Trip

What a sweet husband I have! For our 6-year anniversary and my 30th B-day, Eric suprised me with a trip to Algoma, WI this past weekend! We had a lot of fun, swam at kohler andrae state park, stayed at the Britannia (a bed and breakfast run by real brits), ate at Penguin city pizza (not quite sure where they got that name, but were told by a local that it's a good thing God gave us butts so we can open the door when carrying pizzas) :)

We also biked 14 miles on a trail in Algoma, and it was a VERY beautiful trail. On our way home, we swam at the beach in Two Rivers (well, we tried to swim but only lasted 15 min. since it was lake Michigan and was COLD!!!!). :)

Tomorrow it's back to work for us, but since it is my 30th b-day tomorrow, I bought tickets to American Players Theater, so we should have a pretty fun night watching a play in the woods.

TIRED OF WAITING...FEELING BLUE

Wow, can you believe we've made it to the half-way point in our wait for a referral? I thought the waiting would get easier each month, but to my surprise, it's getting harder and harder. Oh, and my earlier post about how I was excited to have the distraction of orientation at work to occupy my thoughts and help the wait go faster?? TOTALLY NOT WORKING!! :) If anything, working up there has had the opposite effect on me. I work around babies all day, so that's all I think about at work. Everyone at work is talking about the babies they are taking care of all day, about 4 or 5 nurses are starting to come back from maternity leaves, so people are talking about their babies, there are three or four pregnant people working on the floor right now, etc.... You get the picture. Every time I watch tv, there are commercials with babies in them, there are babies and pregnant women at the store, mall..I could go on forever. ;) A lot of people don't understand my waiting intolerance. They say, "Yeah, but you've only been waiting since Feb. right?" Sadly, no. In fact, Monday marks our 6 year anniversary of when we first started trying to get pregnant (it also happens to be our 6-year wedding anniversary). Granted, we were not trying fertility treatments yet at that time, and there was the 2004 year from hell when Eric got laid off twice, but it still feels like an eternity has passed. The major fertility treatments didn't start until a year ago, but we had tried EVERYTHING up until then. I am amazed at how much time has passed, and how Eric and I have managed to stay positive and know that our dream of a familiy would come true one day.
So, I'll quit my pouting for now. I can clearly wait a long time if I need to, so a few more months is not going to kill me. ;) I have been having a lot of dreams lately that we've gotten a referral for a baby boy, so I should translate my nervous energy into keeping a dream journal. Maybe some of them will come true........

Diabetic Shadow, Gracie's Pet Bird

Well, we found out a few weeks ago that Shadow has diabetes.

:(

He had been peeing and drinking all the time and loosing weight. We started him on insulin shots twice a day, and he will have to be on them for the rest of his life. I, meanwhile, am searching for gloves that I can wear while giving him the shots since he likes to bite me. :}

Also new in pet news, gracie has a new pet bird. It lives in the bush on the side of our house, and she always runs outside and smiles at the bush until the bird flies out. Then, she goes trotting after it like they're playing a game. It's pretty funny to watch. :)

MY WONDERFUL JOB

Lots of people have been asking me lately what it's like to work in the NICU. What do the babies look like, how old are they, etc.... Well, I found some stock photos online that give a good example of what some of the premature babies look like that I take care of. Many of the babies are born early (as early as 23-24 weeks sometimes) and are there for months. Handling them with all their tubes and lines can get pretty crazy. I've only been training up there for three weeks and am just starting to get the hang of things. Thankfully I will have a long orientation, and the nurses have been great about showing me diff. things to learn. The most frequent question I get asked is if I am enjoying my new job. I absolutely love it, and I am often overwhelmed by the preemie's cuteness. Especially when they gaze at you through the isolette. Who wouldn't want an adorable little face looking at them all day? :)

-Leah

Camping near Tomahawk

Here are some pics of our camping trip last weekend. The dogs had soo much fun. The awake pics of them are from on the way there, and the sleepy ones show them all tired on the way home because we made them swim three times that day so they'd sleep in the car. ;)

BABY STUFF!!!!!

OK, I admit it, I am addicted to garage sales and craigslist. :) I have found sooo many cool things for our baby that I just had to post some pics. The crib was FREE!!!!, the changing table we found the same day from someone on craigslist, and it just happens to be the same one that goes with the crib (Pali). The jogging stroller was practically new at a garage sale for $10, and the swing was $2!!!! I also found this great pack-n-play by Carters yesterday that has the very hungry catepillar design, along with stuffed catepillar, sun, strawberry, etc.. on the mobile. It also plays music, has a light and vibrates. I still have a barnyard crib bedding set from Lands End (I got for practically nothing when I worked there in 2001) and Eric's sister Brittany gave us TWO whole rubbermaid containers full of baby clothes!! Most are boy clothes, but if we were to get a girl there are also some unisex pieces in there. We also have another tote full of clothes from a garage sale that gave them to us for FREE!!!! I could not believe it. Now we just have to figure out a paint color for the nursery. Any suggestions???

My Sister's Graduation

My sister, Lydia, just graduated from nursing school. Congrats Lyd!! Here are pics of her covered in silly string (thanks to Eric) :) The bottom pic is Eric and I at the party.

New Timeframes

It looks like a trend is developing with our adoption agency. Right now, it is taking 9-10 months for people to get a referral, and then 12-15 weeks to travel to get their children after that. So, I am hoping for a referral around January 2009.
Also, I found out I will be starting in the NICU in mid to late July, so that will take my mind off waiting for awhile. :)

I'm going to be a NICU nurse!!

We have exciting news! I just got a new job as an RN in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Meriter! I start sometime around Mid-June or so, and will be working 4 shifts a week, and a mix of Evening and Night shifts. The NICU is where I started working as a HUC in 2002, so I know a lot of the staff, and that floor was what originally got me interested in nursing, so I am so happy to be able to work there now. They are located right above the floor I currently work on, so it won't be too much of a scenery change. :)
I am glad that this is happening now because it will give me time to focus on work and not think about waiting for our adoption to happen.
Well, I'm off to play with the dogs. Bye!
-Leah

WE ARE ON THE WAIT LIST AS OF 4/3/08!!!!!

We did it! We finished all our paperwork for the Dossier and just found out today that we are on the official waiting list for an infant!!! The wait is still 6-9 months, but we were told to expect more like 8-9 months. It may go up in the future due to an increase in the amount of applications, but we will just have to wait and see. After we get a referral, there is about a 10 week waiting period, and then we can travel to Ethiopia to get them. I am thinking that this time next year we will be either traveling or getting ready to travel.
There won't be too much to post from now on, but if anything new comes up, I will let everyone know.
Sigh.....no more paper shuffling. Now I can start catching up on my reading again. :)
I just started reading a really good book called "Notes from the Hyena's Belly". It was written by a man who grew up in Ethiopia, and it's all about his childhood and adolescence there. So far it is really interesting.

A Sad Hazel and Jealous Gracie after Hazel's Recent Paw Surgery

CHECK OUT THIS FUNNY CAT VIDEO!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8hOqsVAgwI

OUR HOME STUDY WAS APPROVED!!

Yay! We just found out yesterday that our home study has been approved by the international agency (Children's Home Society and Family Services). This means that we can now do our final paperwork for the dossier, and once that is turned in, we will be on the official waiting list for a child!
We had our fingerprinting appt. in Milwaukee yesterday at the dept. of homeland security office. Yes, it was during the big snowstorm. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there! Once there, we parked down the block and arrived at their front door. Even though our appt. was scheduled for Noon, and we were there at 11:58 am, we were told they were closing because of the weather, but would let us be the last people they were going to let in. Thank God!! They were not shy about letting us know they did not want to be there and just wanted to get home to escape the bad roads. Eric's fingerprinting went fine, but mine may have to be re-done since my prints are not very good (they said it's from all the handwashing I have to do at the hospital). We'll just have to wait and see.
Today we went to our first required adoption class. We chose the all-day version, so after today we only have to attend one more all-day session two weeks from now. This is a state of Wisconsin requirement.
Our goal is to finish the dossier by mid-April, and that would mean that we could expect a referral for an infant 7-9 months from then.

Getting Closer.....

It's almost March, and Eric and I are managing to get through our initial paperwork quicker than we thought! The hardest part so far was writing our individual autobiographies. They had to be 5-8 pages in length and cover several topics. We got through it, though, and are now onto our second phase which involves getting several things notarized and mailed to various places.
Our home visit will be happening on March 12th. This is where our social worker comes to our home and makes sure that we meet Wisconsin standards as far as saftey, space, fire codes, electrical and plumbing. While we organize our house and try to clean as we've never cleaned before, we will also be working on our cultural worksheets from our international adoption agency that we will be working with. They are the ones that help us complete the necessary govmnt. forms and coordinate our child referral and travel process. The worksheets involve thnking about ways that we will incorporate our child's culture into their lives. How we will teach them about where they came from, the kinds of places we will take them (such as meetings with other families who have adopted from Ethiopia), and books we will use to help them understand what adoption means.
Today, we mailed in our application for our child's temp. Visa. We also applied for fingerprinting (which must be done in Milwaukee). They will mail us a date and we must go on that date for our fingerprinting. We also have to recieve a clearance from our local sheriff's dept. and send in two passport photos of ourselves.
The exiting thing is, once our home visit is complete and as long as the international agency approves us, (the last big hurdle), then we are very close to being put on the waiting list for a child. The current wait time (it changes frequently) is about 7-9 months. After the referral, we wait another 10 weeks, and then are able to travel to Ethiopia.

Dog Fun in the Snow

Hazel and Gracie could not be happier about all the snow we've been getting. Gracie likes to jump into snowbanks and bury herself up to her eyes. For some reason, they also really like playing with this blue deflated ball that was frozen to the ground from last summer.

We are pretty excited because our first meeting with the adoption social worker is going to be tomorrow night!! She said it is ok to meet now instead of waiting for our tax return to be done. Yay!! No more waiting! :)

One Cause

Hi there! I recently realized that the one cause information letter did not state which organization to choose when setting up an account with them. For those of you who wish to sign up and get asked this question, it should be the "National Adoption Foundation".
Not much new here. We have our initial paperwork filled out, but need to wait until our tax return is done in order to complete the last section. So....a little more waiting and then we should be able to turn it in and start our initial meetings with the social worker.

Just Decided

Eric and I have decided that we are going to begin the adoption process and adopt a baby from Ethiopia!
This will be a long and amazing journey of emotions and paperwork, and we will keep everyone updated every step of the way
:)
Love, Leah and Eric