I have embryos!

I am officially matched with embryos! They went ahead and matched me with them while they compiled the profiles, and today I went to pick them up and got to see a picture of the egg donor. She's a cute little blond girl with a flawless medical history. The sperm came from a dark-haired Italian. All in all, I reviewed the profiles and still need to call back to confirm that I do indeed want them and determine next steps. At the same time, I should start filling out the endless amount of paperwork for fostering.

Stuff happening!

In the last post I said it was time to take some action, and I did! A couple days after I wrote that, I made a few phone calls and connected with an agency that works with DCFS for foster care and adoption. I expected that I'd have to leave a message and wait to hear back, but one of the licensing workers answered my call... we moved extremely quickly because a class was starting that following Monday night and if I didn't get into that one, the next one really close to me wouldn't start until May. (The class meets once a week for 9 weeks and is required for all potential fostering/adopting parents). While on the phone, the licensing worker said she really needed to meet me before I started the class, so she asked if she'd be able to come to my home that following day after I got home from work! I did some quick cleaning and tucking stuff in closets that night so I'd be ready for her visit, and then laughed at myself after her visit because she only stayed maybe 10 minutes and never even took her coat off! It was apparent she just wanted to check to see that I was "legit" and drop off some of the vast paperwork that I need to begin filling out. So here I am, not even 2 weeks later and have 2 of the 9 weeks of class completed. It's a little frightening and overwhelming, and definitely requires a shift in my thinking from the past couple of years. I originally said I'd be interested in children under 4 or 5, but when asked if I'd consider up to age 8 or 9 I said yes. Very different than carrying a baby and giving birth and having this brand new little life. Hence the need for a shift in my thoughts.

That being said, I also keep checking the donor embryo listing my doctor keeps. Nothing has been added for quite some time, but last night I checked and there is a new group of 5 embryos listed that were created from a 20 year old egg donor. There is no other information listed yet, so I sent a message through the patient portal inquiring about them and stated that I would most likely want to be matched with them. I still would hope to wait until late spring to start the process, ideally with the transfer happening once school is out, but I'm not sure if I can be matched and then just let them sit for a few months. So now I just wait to hear back.... no response yet. I have to admit, I felt some excitement when I saw that listing. I'll report back when I hear something!

Hello to a new year!

Welcome 2012. I feel like now is a good time to update this... say goodbye to 2011 and hello to what I hope will be an amazing year. This year, I resolve to cry less and laugh more. Yep, maybe there are some more resolutions but right now that's #1. Perhaps #2 is to take some forward action... a friend gave me a phone number for someone who works placing foster children, just to call and see what she could tell me. She's asked several times "have you called her yet?" and when I say no I realize that I've been too depressed to take any kind of action. That stops this month. I also periodically check the live link the doctor gave me that tracks the embryos available from donors. None have been added recently, but I hope sometime this spring they will... I'd like to do this last embryo transfer around June/July. So there ya have it, an update of what my current plan is... hopefully I'll be writing again soon to share what is happening in the foster to adopt process!