Things to work on.....

I have list of things that I need to work on. However, have yet to get motivated. This is how I see us.....fast forward 12 months or so.... [yes, I'm being positive about the wait ] We still don't have the baby's room done, we are rushing around trying to get things done.... You might wonder why I think this way, well with Emily, it was done like this:

Bill and I were living in the basement of his parents house. We decided to move in to help out his mom and dad. His mom had breast cancer that went to the bone and was fighting a tough battle. They would loose the house if we didn't move in. So the plan was that we would remodel the downstairs and make it an inlaw suite complete with kitchen, living room, bathroom and 2 bedrooms. They would move downstairs and we would move upstairs. Well....7 months into pregnancy, nothing was complete yet. We painted Emily's room when I was 8 months pregnant. Everything was such a rush.

Now that we have all the time to prepare for number 2, you would think it would get done.

The baby's room is currently our office and junk room. In order to clean out the junk, I need to clean out our large hallway closet. This is where most of the junk needs to go... The office is going into a corner of Emily's playroom. Yes this child has a playroom all her own but a word for the wise....it doesn't work. She drags all her toys out to the living room to play and then leaves them there until I yell for cleanup. Then she drags them to her playroom -- everything just thrown in -- until I yell for cleanup. The office in Emily's playroom will be wireless so we can be on both the pc and laptop at the same time.

The baby's room has yucky paneling on the walls (and no drywall behind them)..So we have to tear the paneling down, dry wall, paint, carpet and decorate. At the same time this is done, the hall way which still has yucky paneling up will get the same tear down and drywall/paint action. These are the last two areas of the house that have the yucky paneling up. We have taken all of it down.

As far as the theme for the baby's room, it will more than likely be generic for either a boy or girl. I have found a cute alphabet/jungle animal pattern that will work for a boy or girl. Although, I have dreams of Bill repainting the room upon referral if it is boy so he can have his sports related nursery -- like the Georgia Bulldogs or NY Jets..... He says he isn't going to do this but.....I think he will.

Referrals for the next group should be coming soon......I hope and pray it is large.

Jen

One Month LID Anniversary!

Very excited to have one month behind us. Only 23 more to go....hopefully just kidding.

I keep praying that we will be in China by Christmas 2007.

Infertility is Just One Big IF statement

I'm getting a lot of "now that you have decided to adopt, you will get pregnant" speeches. I guess that is better than "if you move to Floor XX at work you will get pregnant" -- everyone at work on the floor seems to have no trouble in that department.

We have done nothing to prevent a pregnancy for years now and based off our last rounds of infertilty treatment, most of the infertility problems are now on my side rather than Bill's (although he still has issues -- they are just more known). That's not to even mention the miscarriages.

Why don't people understand that I'm happy about adopting. Getting pregnant is not something I want right now. Sure if by some miracle if I got pregnant, and if I was able to manage to stay pregnant, I would be estatic. That would be one big IF. Funny how the word "IF" is the abbreviation for Infertility on the boards on the internet. Sort of fitting if you think about. Infertility is just one big IF statement. I think the one word I constantly heard from doctors was IF....

• If this works...
• If you lost weight...
• If we remove the fibroid...
• If you do this treatment...

I have definitely moved past wanting a pregnancy. I dream about a little baby with asian features. I really believe we are meant to go down this path rather than the have another biological child.

Our next baby will not be an IF statement, it will happen...it is just a matter of WHEN.

The matching room

I came across this website that talks about the matching room and how matches are made.
see http://www.wesselsworld.nl/ccaa.htm

Referrals Are Here.....

CCAA has issued referral up to and including August 9th, 2005.

They did 18 days of LIDs. Which I guess is better than before, however, I have heard that there were less dossiers during this time frame. I'm going to look at the positive spin on this -- they did 18 days. Still....the wait....

I feel like I have been waiting for years. We tried several years of infertility treatments. So I guess it feels like we have been waiting forever.

If the wait is 13-14 months -- this will mean a referral in October/November with travel in Dec 2007/Jan 2008. This means our little one is probably not born yet. Bill thinks we will be celebrating Christmas/Hanukkah in China in 2007. I hope he is right.

Jen

Here is my one miracle

I have talked alot about adopting a baby. But I cannot forget, my one true miracle, Emily. Emily was conceived almost 7 years ago. We went through infertility treatments to have her. In fact her conception was 9/15/1999. We found out a month later while we were on a cruise that we were pregnant. I packed pregnancy tests with me. I remember waking up Bill at 4 in the morning because I had to pee and it was time to test. We had such a faint positive that it was hard to see. I only packed 2 tests and this was a 7 day cruise. 2 days later we took another test, positive. We had a hard time believing it was true. Once we were back in the USA -- we ran to Walgreens in New Orleans (where we flew into) and took another test. Positive. Emily was born the following June. She was not a very lovey baby. Didn't like to be held. She did love to swing though. Never napped.

6 years later --- she is smart as a whip. Reads voraciously. What is so great about her is that she is a good person inside and has a great heart. (I know Mommy is prejudice).

Here she is.....

Reasons Why Adoption is Better Than Infertility Treatments

One of my fellow bloggers posted Why Adoption is better than Pregnancy. Here is my spin.....

Why Adoption is Better than Infertility Treatments

10. No more buying those damn ovulation kits and pregnancy tests. I probably could have financed this adoption with the amount of dollars I invested in these kits.

9. No more bruises on the legs. They looked like I was a drug user.

8. No More Infertility Drugs. Another waste of money!

7. No More Unconfortable Legs in Stirrups every month. Nothing is worse than having an exam when you have your period. It is disgusting!

6. For my husband -- No More "Donations" at the Clinic. I'm sure that this was not his most favorite thing to do.

5. No More mood swings -- see #7. ah but in my case, mood swings are still there

4. No more dr. appt's. Even with insurance covering most of our treatment, I had to pay a co-pay each time we went. Again, we could have financed our adoption with this money we wasted.

3. No more dr's telling us well it could be this, it could be that. We just don't know.

2. No more timed sex. Nothing is worse than sex when you have the flu or you are sick but you cannot let this key moment go by without trying.

1. Best thing -- We KNOW that there will be a baby at the end of this LONG journey. Infertility treatments to me was hopeless.

Jen