Did you know?

Happy Monday everyone! I am off from work today so I thought I would share some infertility statistics with all of you. Nothing new is happening in the process; I really don't expect much to happen until June, so we are enjoying the lull right now. In the family, we are expecting a new niece any day and are expecting our first great-nephew in July! I think 2011 is definitely the year for new children in our family!

One of my favorite websites to read about infertility at is http://www.resolve.org/. I highly recommend you visit it because most people don't know much about infertility or how it affects couples. I will post a few infertility statistics here, taken from this website and from the Infertility stats page at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/fertile.htm.

Did you know...

• 1 out of 8 couples struggle with infertility? Chances are, we're not the only couple you know who has infertility issues. Most couples don't make this public.
• Approximately one-third of infertility is attributed to the female partner, one-third attributed to the male partner and one-third is caused by a combination of problems in both partners or, is unexplained. 
• Number of women ages 15-44 with impaired fecundity (impaired ability to have children): 7.3 million
• A couple ages 29-33 with a normal functioning reproductive system has only a 20-25% chance of conceiving in any given month (National Women’s Health Resource Center). After six months of trying, 60% of couples will conceive without medical assistance.

Enjoy! Again, happy Monday everyone!

Home Study and Everything Else!

OK, OK, I'm sorry I haven't posted since last week! I've been super busy with work (as usual), and I know you've been asking me to post about the home study!

The most amazing thing was that Sunny was the best behaved dog. EVER. She was sooo wonderful. When the social worker arrived at our house, Sunny did not bark. She was sweet, friendly, and minded her own business when we were inside. Maybe she knew what was at stake. WOW.

The home study was actually much easier than I thought it would be. The social worker inspected the room that the child would be sleeping in and looked at all of the child safety materials (such as the safety locks and plug protectors). She seemed very impressed with everything we had done to make the house child-proof. At the end, she told us that we have a nice house that would be suitable for a child to live in. YEAH!!!

The next step for us is parenting classes in June. Thank goodness they are on Saturdays so it won't interfere with my work schedule-June is the craziest month of the year for me with work. After June, the process should be much more exciting! So right now is the waiting time, the calm before the storm. We are sooo excited! We can't wait to see what the future holds!!

Wow! What a surprise!

(This actually happened on Thursday, but I did not get the chance to post until today. A follow-up blog will be posted soon!)

So the most amazing thing happened today! This afternoon, I got off early and Russell and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. While we were standing in line, I got a phone call from the resource coordinator to set up our home study!! Our home study will be TOMORROW morning! Yes, I said TOMORROW!! I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. OK I better get off now so I can start cleaning and preparing!!

I will post again after it's over!!

Nothing yet...

Some of you have asked me whats going on in the process since I haven't blogged lately. We are still waiting on a call to schedule our home study. The one thing about these adoptions is that they take a VERY long time. But we don't care, we know all the waiting will be worth it when we get our child.

I'm not worried about the waiting yet, because there is still so much to do before the home study. The major things we still have to do are:

• Get Georgia driver's licenses
• Get fingerprints
• Take a drug test
• Have our car insurance changed from FL to GA
• And of course, get ready for the home study!

 There's a bunch of other stuff to do, but those are the most important things. While we are waiting for the call, I'll probably post some things on infertility since I know so many people have not been exposed to the world of infertility.

In other news, I am going to a baby shower this weekend (We will have a new niece near the end of April! Yeah!!) and it will probably be the first baby shower I've been to in over 5 years that I don't come home feeling depressed and wonder when (or if) we will ever have a child.

Until next time...

Getting Ready! Well...slowly

This week has been a slow week in the adoption process, meaning nothing has happened. We are hoping that our background check has come back by now, and the resource coordinator determines that we're not criminals, lol. Since I had a VERY busy week at work (dressing up as The Cat in the Hat 3 times in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday), it was nice to have a slow adoption week.

We went to Wal-Mart last night and bought our first child related item!! We bought those safety plugs, the ones that keep children from putting their fingers into the electrical outlets. I probably sound silly, but it was very cool to be in the infants section of Wal-Mart buying something for us! We've only been in that section before to buy stuff for baby showers.

Also, I moved our household cleaners from an open space in the laundry room to the cabinet at the bottom of our sink. Now, we just have to get some of those cabinet locks before the home study.

We're hoping that the resource coordinator will call us sometime this week or next week to schedule the home study. And you know I'll be blogging about it once I get that call!

What a weekend!

This weekend, we went to Tallahassee to tell our family about our exciting journey! Overall, everyone was very happy for us! It was a wonderful feeling that, for a change, the child spotlight was on US!!

I know how it feels to hear that someone younger than me, or around my same age, is pregnant. It still amazes me that people can get pregnant at the drop of a hat, when they have absolutely no idea what we have been through with our infertility struggles. 

I am off from work today, so we are planning to have our TB (tuberculosis) screening done this afternoon. One more thing to cross off the list! Yeah!!

Sunny's Vaccinations

On Friday, we took our darling Sunny (our 7-year old miniature pinscher) to the vet to get her vaccinations. She acts like she usually does at the vet! When I got her out of the truck, she jumped back in to the truck! Then, when I picked her up, I had to carry her into the vet's office because she would not walk in there on the leash. Keep in mind, she only weighs 11 pounds!! When we finally made it inside, she kept staring at the door because she couldn't wait to get out of there. The receptionist called her "Gretchen", which is extremely funny because that is my mother-in-law's dog's name! Gretchen is also a miniature pinscher, btw. We finally got back to the examination room, where I put a muzzle on her. Every time we go, she tries to bite the vet, so this is why she needs the muzzle. After all of the painful shots and nail trims were completed, I was able to take the muzzle off and she started barking at the vet and the techs! But, the important thing is, the vet said Sunny is doing great and I got her vaccination certificate! Yeah! One thing to cross off the list!