Adoption Update

Today is a slow day at the office. Probably the slowest I've had since the middle of September. I seriously have everything done that I need to do…except for some pesky life insurance phone calls, but those can wait until tomorrow…or sometime next week…or as long as I can put it off. Leslie will hate me when she reads this, but since she's working 70 hours a week she probably won't see it until sometime later in the spring.

I decided to take this time and create a post to announce the new direction we are going to try with our adoption. For about the last year the topic of embryo adoption has kept coming up. At one time last spring our social worker even called us to see if that was something we would be interested in. It was, but every time we thought about doing something different the agency would get a rush of potential situations so we'd decide to wait before turning in our application (and paying the application $$$), if we didn't need to. Finally last summer, right before we went on vacation, we decided to send in the application. In turn, they sent us a bunch of paperwork back that needed to be filled out.

That was what made our doctors appointments last fall so hectic. I think I posted about that while we were going through everything. We had double the work in terms of medical tests and paperwork to be signed off on. Also, while I was updating our domestic adoption profile, I was also trying to create our profile for the embryo adoption. There was a lot of stress going on, but we weren't ready to announce yet that we were going to try the concurrent embryo adoption. We've just had so many ups and downs with this whole process I didn't feel like announcing something and then have to take it back.

We still aren't out of the woods yet in knowing if we will for sure be able to do this. Our homestudy has been approved, but we are on another waiting list. When I talked to the patient coordinator the first part of December she said that we were on the list then proceeded to shuffle papers and count each couple that was in line ahead of us in my ear. She seriously counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 out loud. There are 18 couples ahead of us waiting to have their initial appointment. I think that is the story of our lives with this adoption – hurry up and wait! I'm guessing that's going to put our initial appointment sometime this summer? I'm hoping by August we'll be headed to Knoxville, TN to meet with the doctor….which would put a transfer actually happening towards the end of the year.

At this initial appointment they will check us over and determine if I'm even a candidate for embryo adoption. Since we don't know the cause of our infertility I have no idea if this will even be an option for us.
We are excited about this prospect, but my hands also get sweaty thinking about it. I really want to do this, but I'm also scared. We've had so many disappointments over the last 5 years that I'm nervous about trying anything else. I'm nervous about the anxiety I'll have during the two week wait to see if the embryo(s) stuck. I'm terrified of bawling at my desk every day because I'm so stressed out wondering if it's going to work or not. I'm also nervous about all the medication I'll have to take. It all sounds so complicated. I'm really really nervous about the progesterone shots, which Jay will have to give to me. The thought of Jay coming towards my rear end with a needle is frightening. We get to try this 3 times. How will I feel if they don't take? These are all emotions that are running through my mind off and on.

I guess I'm making the announcement so that 1. I'll have something else to talk about on the blog except – oh we weren't picked again and 2. Some extra prayers for us while we go through this process would be great.

Right after our homestudy was approved we got our Bethany quarterly magazine and there was an article about embryo adoption. Their story sounds so much like ours – they were waiting for something every time they turned around. Like us they waited over 2 years on the domestic adoption list before they decided to try the concurrent embryo adoption. Then their first transfer didn't take. Then their second transfer resulted in a miscarriage. Finally their third transfer worked and they were pregnant with twins. But their waiting wasn't over. The pregnancy was very hard and she ended up on bed rest. Finally, the babies were born healthy and this couple has a wonderful relationship with their children's genetic parents. The article was called Worth the Wait. I try to keep focused on that thought – that someday we will finally be at peace with our wait and know that whatever happens will be worth everything that we went through.

If you are interested in reading more about embryo adoption or the clinic where we will be going – the link is here.

I know this is a topic that some of you may have never heard of.  If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or just ask one of us.  We are excited to think about giving life to these frozen embryos....or "Snowflakes" as they've been nicknamed.

They Learn Early

Speaking of boys learning early how to handle women, I had another example happen to me last week.
It was the day after Lawson was born. It was a Wednesday, which is Jay's staff meeting day so I have to take Cade to school. This particular Wednesday I was pretty tried and was moving at snail speed. I usually am pretty good at getting around in a decent amount of time. I don't tend to hold up the family or make us habitually late getting where we need to be. I do have my days though and this day was one of them.

This is also a good time to mention that Cade can't tell time yet. But he very clearly has an internal clock because twice he marched back to the bathroom to ask me if I was ready yet. He worked himself up because he thought he was going to be late. School doesn't start until 8:20, but his internal clock was telling him that he and his dad would've left a long time ago. I kept telling him he was fine, we had plenty of time, etc. It settled him down somewhat and we were able to head out the door to school.

Everything went fine on the drive. We sat in silence, which is how he likes it in the morning. Things took a bad turn though when we pulled up and there was no one else being dropped off at that moment. Cade just knew we were late. I assured him everything was fine. I pulled up and unlocked the door for him to get out. I was in the middle of telling him to have a good day and that I loved him when he opened up the door, got out, turned around and huffily said "what took you so long to put on your makeup anyway", then slammed the door and marched into the school.

Oh, his poor wife. I hope he marries someone who doesn't piddle around because he's not going to have the patience to deal with it. Now, taking forever to find a toy to hold in his hand while you drive him to school is all together a different deal. Applying makeup and looking for a toy isn't even something you can compare to each other. I'm learning that boys learn very early that women stuff is dumb and a waste of time, but it's ok to spend lots of time on manly things.

When I told Jay the story he was relieved to learn that apparently Cade does have an internal clock.  Up to this point we really weren't sure he had one. 

It Was Back….

Remember my post right after Thanksgiving about the nasty mouse in my car? I hadn't had any more problems with it so I thought it was gone….until last Friday. Charlie has developed this irritating of habit of sitting in the garage until the door is about 6 inches from being completely down then he decides to run out. Then that triggers the sensor on the door and makes it go back up. Then he will stand right in the way so the door won't do anything. This is a new little trick he's learned in the last few weeks. I think he loves it because he knows there is nothing more irritating than a dog, which stands 6 inches off the ground, holding up your entire day. So last Friday he did this little trick and he wouldn't budge so that meant I had to actually get out of the car to physically move him. When I got out of the car I saw a mouse run under my car. I'm not 100% sure where it came from, but I really thought it ran from the inside of the car. Can you imagine if Charlie hadn't held me up? I probably would've ended up in a ditch on Highway 39 that morning. So that caused me to text Jay "Mouse 911, Call me when you can". When Jay called me back he said he'd take care of it.

Jay's taking care of it meant he bought more mouse poison, which we did the last time. My concern was what if the mouse ate the poison and then died somewhere in there car that we couldn't get to? I know there are probably a million fries stuck between my seat and the console because I can't get my hand in the crack. What if a mouse got down there? And the last time we did this we found that the mouse had drug the block of poison into the battery box. We were dealing with the mouse equivalent of the Incredible Hulk. Jay thought about that Saturday night/Sunday morning so he got up early Sunday and tore my car apart. He pulled up the back seat and did all sorts of things I didn't know the car was capable of. He declared it to be mouse free. I believed him.

Everything was all fine and dandy until yesterday when I left work to head home. I opened up my car door and tossed my purse in the passenger seat.  I then looked down and saw the mouse lying right where my feet should go on the driver's side.  I screamed and shut the door.  I hesitated for moment wondering if I should grab my phone from my purse.  I was too grossed out to reach across the seat so I ran in and called Jay from work. I repeatedly hit redial on the phone until Jay decided to answer. Once he finally answered the phone I told him the mouse was dead in the car and all he could do was laugh.   Pam heard and took pity on me. She said she'd get it out of the car. All Jay did was laugh at me on the phone. Luckily Darrell, my boss, came to the rescue. He took a pair of pliers and grabbed the mouse by the tail and threw it in a ditch.  Then he checked the other side to make sure there wasn't another one hiding out, waiting to run up my pant leg.   He said it wasn't a regular house mouse, he thought it was a field mouse because it was so big….which would explain how it was able to drag a bar of poison into the battery box.  Jay called the office as I was pulling out of the driveway and he and Pam had a good laugh over the whole experience. I drove home with my left leg extended straight out and the tip of my right big toe on the very top of the gas pedal. 

Cade came home and told me we should call my car the Mouse 'Mobile. Then when I was telling Jay how nasty this whole experience has been Cade threw up his hands and said "I'm not getting involved in this". I guess men learn at a young age to ignore women when they are having hysterics. I'm sure that's something Jay has taught him during all the hours they spend together before and after school. I am so out numbered.

I will be calling about getting my car detailed as soon as I can.  YUCK!!!

What Does It Mean.....

When your 7 year old boy insists on wearing a brown Fedora to school every day?  Does he think the hat is cool or that it makes him look like Indiana Jones?  I really don't have an idea what's swirling around his head, but I'd like to know.

Here's what's swirling around ours...
Jay - He's going to loose that thing and then we'll never hear the end of it....

Me - I hope the other kids aren't putting it on their heads....  I'm not germaphobic but I am liceaphobic.

We gently tried to voice our concerns today but Cade gave us such a disappointed look we let him go out the door again, with the Indiana Jones hat on his head.  (sigh) I really hope he doesn't bring home lice in the thing.

I'm an Aunt Again

Charity had her baby boy today. Lawson Heath was born at 3:18, weighed 7 lbs 8 oz and was 21 inches. Avery is very excited about her status of being a big sister. He is a very sweet boy. I need to tell them to enjoy it now. Before you know it he'll be running around shooting off a million rounds of imaginary ammunition with his mouth while driving his parents absolutely nuts!



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Universal Studio/Hollywood Tour

We went to Universal Studio on Sunday.  It was a lot of fun.  That day seemed to fly by.  We got to pretty much do most of everything we wanted, but it seemed like we were rushed trying to get it all done.  My favorite part was the Backlot Tour.  We got to drive down Wisteria Lane, that was pretty neat.

Where CSI is filmed

After we left Universal we went on a night tour of Hollywood. We mostly drove around and looked at the “spots” but we did get to get out on the Walk of Fame. We saw some of the stars, the Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theater.

We went to Legoland the day after Christmas. I would rather have been in line at Wal-Mart to return 15 gifts than trying to navigate through that place. The tour bus dropped us off at 10:30 am and didn’t pick us up until 7:30 pm. It was a long day of looking at Legos. Cade loved it so that makes it worth it…just a note to self – never let a tour bus drop you off at an amusement part for that long. At least we did get to see the Pacific Ocean on the drive to the park. That made it worth it. Cade’s been able to see every body of water surrounding the US. Considering Jay and I are 32 and just saw that Cade’s doing pretty good for his 7 years.

A gigantic Christmas tree made from Legos

Could it get any better for Cade?

The best part of Legoland were the miniture cities they built.  The band in this scene even played music and moved.  It was pretty neat.  Looking at all these models did kill a large chunk of the day (thankfully!)

Jay and Cade got their boat going to wrong way, which Jay that was just hilarious.  I thought it was obnoxious.

Cade made a Bionicle and a worker put it in a place of honor.

The Indiana Jones Incident

After we left California Adventure we headed to Disneyland. That was when Cade purchased his coveted Indiana Jones hat. He spotted it the first day we got to the park, but after seeing the price tag of $36 we tried to talk him into holding off to make sure that was really what he wanted. Since we heard about that hat all Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we decided he really wanted the hat. That is one of the advantages of having an only child/being an only child. A $36 hat isn't a huge deal....$36 times 2 or 3 children is a whole different story! As soon as we bought it, much to my disappointment, he quit wearing his ears. That hat was pretty much glued to his head for the rest of the trip. He would freak out while waiting in line for a ride so he'd stuff it in the backpack, even though we might be waiting another 45 minutes. He didn't want to loose it, he loved his hat. The day we left for the airport our shuttle picked us up at 4:30 am. Needless to say we were all exhausted. Cade fell asleep on the ride to the airport. Once we got there it was a flurry of activity. Jay and I were trying to deal with the luggage and wake Cade up and get him out of the way of the cars in the unloading zone and deal with the driver and the vouchers and tipping. It was hectic. We got our stuff and Cade hauled into the airport, Jay and I got in line with the luggage and we put Cade on a bench. That's when it happened. Cade became hysterical because his hat had fallen off and we left it in the van. The van was long gone. Cade was crying and Jay and I were both upset and mad at ourselves. I mean the driver had reminded us to make sure we had everything. I tried telling Cade I'd order him another one online. At that point I would've paid $100 for the hat if it meant he would've quit crying. Then I remembered I had the phone number of the shuttle service and our confirmation number in my pocket. I called the dispatcher and she contacted the driver. He was still in the area and he would meet me out front of where he dropped us off. After giving the man another tip we had the Indiana Jones hat back in our possession. All was right in the world again. The rest of the day I was constantly mentally counting....2 backpacks, 1 laptop, 1 purse, 1 scrapbook and 1 hat.

Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland

We went to Disney's California Adventure after we left the character breakfast.  It's another theme park directly across from Disneyland.  It wasn't too crowded in there Christmas morning so we had a pretty nice time.  Some of the highlights were finally meeting Mickey and Minnie, Lightning McQueen and Mater, Cade carried on a conversation with an animated Crush from finding Nemo and the Disney Animation Studio.  We got to sit through a class that taught us how to draw cartoon characters.  We drew Dopey.  Jay and I could've sat through a couple more of the drawing classes but Cade was itching to get his Indiana Jones hat..

When we got to the park on Christmas Day it was unbelievably crowded. It was pretty much awful. Once we got Cade's hat we got in line for the Jungle Cruise. That was probably a 45 minute wait or so. Then we walked around trying to decide what to do next, but it was all so overwhelming. We managed to find the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh so we rode it. I took a picture of the inside of the store. All of the decorations were incredible. We also had a chance to see Pooh and Tigger, but the line was so long. We settled for getting them on the video camera. We then decided to try and find something to eat. The lines were so crazy. Absolutely crazy. While looking for a place to eat we stumbled onto Santa and his reindeer. Santa also had a neat little cabin set up with Christmas dinner on the table and the reindeer halters hanging on the wall. After that we decided to leave the park. We headed to Downtown Disney to find a place to eat. It was even worse there than in the Park. The restaurants had lines out the door just to put your name in. We ended up leaving and trying to find a place off the property, We ended up at a buffet that was absolutely terrible...but they had a table on the patio we told them we'd take if it meant me could be seated. The only thing we could say was that at least we weren’t hungry anymore. It definitely wasn't the usual Christmas Dinner for us...but then again it wasn't our typical Christmas either.  I read later that Disneyland almost reached capacity that day which is 70,000 people.

All Ears

After we left the Character Breakfast we made our way through the Downtown Disney district and headed to Disney's California Adventure.  We made a detour at the All Things Disney store so I could buy some ornaments.  They were half-price and wouldn't last all day you know.  That is where we bought Cade's set of ears.  I thought he was the cutest thing.  Jay kept telling me to say he was handsome, but he wasn't.  He was stinkin' cute.  Just look at the picture of him in the Pujols jersey watching the TV's in the waiting area for the Muppet 3-D show.  Don't you want to squeeze him???

Isnt' that too cute???

The Character Breakfast

We went to our Character Breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen on Christmas morning.  It was such a neat experience and I'm so glad we did it.  It was so exciting to see the characters walk up to your table and give you their autograph.  I got as excited as Cade did.  We first had our picture taken with Pluto before we were seated and then after that they walked up to our tables.  Goofy also did a dance and included all of the kids in it.  If anyone ever takes their children to Disney World or Disneyland you need to spring for the character breakfast.  It is definitely worth it.

Santa did find Cade all the way in California

Pluto

Snow White

Baloo

Goofy

Chip

Mulan

Captain Hook

Dale

As you can see in the picture with Mulan, the resturant used Fiesta dishes.  Even though we were far from home on Christmas morning I still got to drink my coffee out of a turquoise mug!

And because it wouldn't have been a breakfast at Disney without these...only wish I had thought to take the picture BEFORE I put butter on them...

Traveling and Christmas Eve

I tried to keep the blog somewhat updated on our travels from KC on the 23rd.  As I reported earlier we did miss our connecting flight out of Houston.  I almost cried.  Luckily Continnental got us on another flight and they put us in a hotel room for the evening.  It really wasn't too bad.  I'm just so thankful we were able to get on another flight and to California reasonably early.  It really only put us behind a few hours.

Once we checked into our hotel and showered/changed into clean clothes (Yea!) we grabbed some lunch and headed to the park.  We got there about 2.  As soon as we walked in the gate a guy handed us some Fastpasses to Indiana Jones.  That was the first ride we got to go on.  We were so lucky that we got those then because I don't know that we would've ever got to ride it.  The rest of the time we were there the ride was broken down some, the Fastpasses were gone and the stand by wait time was 110 minutes. 

Inside of Indiana Jones

The next thing on our agenda was the ride Pirates of the Caribbean.  With the first pirate movie Cade got a CD that had the Wonderful World of Disney that showed the opening day of the ride.  We've watched the movie of the ride about a million times so this was a huge highlight for us.  Knowing that Walt Disney created most of that in the 60's was amazing.  The attention to detail is something else.  Now they've added some of the characters from the movie.  Captain Jack Sparrow was so real looking.  You just expected Johnny Depp to stand up and start talking to you.  Cade was so cute  - he sang Yo Ho Yo Ho a Pirates Life for Me right along with the ride.

After that we got to ride the railroad around and it's a small world.  We're also lucky we got on the small world that day because the rest of the time the wait line was pushing 60 minutes.  We were able to walk right on it.  The crowds were so light that day we were able to get quite a bit accomplished, which turned out to be a good thing considering what the rest of the time of Disneyland would be like.

It's a Small World

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Cade on the Sailing Ship Columbia