Home Study

We are moving right along with our home study and are close to becoming home study approved and ready to be listed as a 'Waiting Family' by our adoption agency. We have completed all of our paper work and last week (5/15) we had our in home visit. I didn't know what to expect with the home study and was pretty anxious leading up to the visit.

During our in home visit, our agency's social worker came to our house and asked questions based on the information that we have already submitted with the paperwork, toured our home (I cleaned like crazy to prepare), and also answered questions that we had. The visit was really laid back and only lasted about an hour. The social worker told us that it would take her 2-3 weeks to complete her report. The report that she writes will be a legal document viewed by the court when we adopt a child.

National Infertility Awareness Week

April 22-28 is National Infertility Awareness Week.

Infertility is a disease recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), infertility affects about 12 percent of the repoductive-age population, including approximately 7.3 million women and their partners in the United States.

Support your family and friends suffering this heartwrenching disease by educating yourself on infertility. Check out the links provided below to help:

Infertilty 101: Get the Facts

Infertility Etiquette

Impatiently Waiting

Andrew and I have both been very busy with work lately (this is my busy week at work). But this has not stopped me from constantly thinking about what we need to do to get on “the waiting list”. We have completed everything that our agency has sent us for the home study thus far, the reference forms and the medical forms. I have been getting a little impatient, so I finally emailed her asking for more paper work that needs complete.

We have started to play around with the profile we need to create. The profile will be the expecting parent’s first impression of Andrew and I, so needless to say, it needs to be perfect. Creating our profile is very fun, we want it show off who we are and highlight our personality. We will attach pictures and include information of ourselves, our home, pets and family/friends in a pleasantly, aesthetic way. We are hoping that by viewing our profile, the expecting parent(s) will want to meet us and hopefully choose us to raise their baby.

So there is really nothing new going on…just waiting (impatiently).

Adoption Is The New Pregnant

Andrew and I recently took the first step to begin the process of adoption. This is something that we have been considering for a really long time. Last fall we met with a newer, local agency just to get an idea about how the process worked, the costs, and a little bit out the agency themselves. However, we were still not ready to give up on the fertility treatments.

We went ahead with a more aggressive approach which included daily shots and close monitoring by our Dr. The goal of the fertility meds were to stimulate and increase the number of follicles produced. The medicine worked well and we had 5 mature follicles. I then did one last injection that triggered the follicles to release the eggs. 36 hours later we had an Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) done in which they place the sperm inside the uterus via a small catheter.

This was our second IUI and we were feeling pretty confident that this would do the trick. I thought that at least one of those eggs would fertilize and implant, and began to worry about the possibility of there possibly being 5 babies (could you even imagine).  Obviously, the treatment did not work. I could help but think that all that money and time were a waste. We had done several month of treatment prior to this and we were just ready for a break.

We spent the next several months enjoying the holidays, selling our old house and buying our new house. We decided that we would take the time to figure which route would be best for us to pursue once we got settle into our new house. After lots of time and prayer, we are both very excited to move forward with adoption.

We contacted the local agency we met with previously and turned in our application. We now begin the home study.  This will be a month long process in which we need to get several references from friends, a medical release from our physician, and a background check. We will also be interviewed by a social worker and she will come and check out our home and community/neighborhood. This process sounds very intimidating but we have been told that we have nothing to be worried about. Praying that it goes quickly and smoothly!!

A little bit of background...

After Andrew and I got married almost three years ago (wow, how time flies), I was ready to start a family immediately. Andrew was hot and cold with the idea at first but quickly came around to it. As young, healthy individuals, we never would have dreamed that three years later we would be where we are today (baby less).  After a little over a year of trying, I began to research anything and everything to increase chances. We went to the OB GYN to get everything checked out. They did a panel of blood work on me and Andrew got tested too. We were eventually given a clean bill of health and no answer to our burning question, why are we not pregnant.

After feeling like the doctor we had been seeing wasn’t giving us the answers we were looking for, I began to research doctors who specialize in infertility. I came across Dr. Donahue, who is a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE), and made an appointment in March 2011. After meeting with Dr. Donahue, we knew we were in the right place. He temporarily diagnosed me with Endometriosis (a disease in which uterine tissue grows out side of the uterus), and recommended that I have a Laparoscopy (the surgery performed to diagnosis and remove endometriosis).  My surgery was scheduled for April 29, 2011, where Dr. Donahue removed Stage I Endometriosis. He said that our fertility prognosis was great. After taking time to heal and a much needed vacation, we began several months of infertility treatments, none of which resulted in a pregnancy.

This leads us to where we are in our journey today. We are both very excited to start the process of adoption. We always knew that this would be a step that we would take eventually (I was adopted and we both wanted to adopt) but never thought it would be this soon.