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. :)