Meet Number Seven!

Late last night Dan and I became an Uncle and Auntie again!  

Our first niece was born! 

(We also have six nephews on my side.)   

Meet Abigail Ruth!

 

So cute!  Congratulations Jake and Kathryn!

Simple, healthy, delicious . . . well mostly healthy!

Last night I made caprese salad.  Fresh and Easy had heirloom tomatoes on clearance so I snatched some fresh mozzarella and basil.  I think I could eat this everyday!  So easy and delicious.

It is avocado season in California so today I made fresh guacamole!

Dan and I are major cheese lovers and I am not talking about jack, cheddar, and swiss.  For a special treat today we bought some imported cheese from France and Holland.  The triple cream was AMAZING!

One of our favorite healthier desserts is dark chocolate covered strawberries.  We live amongst many strawberry fields, so when I saw these beauties I whipped up a quick batch. 

IRS and Embryo Adoption

I saw a letter that explained embryo adoption as equated with traditional adoption for the purposes of receiving the adoption tax credit and showed it to our tax man. He wouldn't do it (primarily due to the fact that none of our embryos have resulted in a live birth yet.)  It is really unfair how the insurance industry treats (or rather doesn't treat) infertility patients. It is sad that our country (including the IRS) doesn't recognize an embryo as a human life. Even many pro-adoption people I know seem to feel it is more noble to adopt a born child rather than one that is unborn as we do in embryo adoption. Hopefully by showing them our embryo pictures next to pictures of those same embryos after they are born will help all to realize that embryos are not "potential" life they are indeed fully human and fully alive.  We need to force our government to honor what we already know: embryo adoption is in fact adoption.

Getting Closer!

Today we got word that the donor family and their lawyer approved all the changes we wanted made to the donor contract.  We had our signature page notarized and then overnighted a $50 check to the lawyer for our donor family's notary fees.  We were a little bothered that they insisted on $50 for notary fees (which seemed excessive) until the lawyer told us it was to have a notary go to the donor family's house to get their signatures on the donation contract.  This means that we won't have to wait four weeks for our donor family to find the time to get to the notary on their own - WELL worth $50 if you ask me!  Our contract should be finalized by the end of the week which means we should have a transfer date by early next week.  I am beyond excited and thankful that we will not have to deal with another failed donation match.

I was talking to Dan today and realized that we both had the same concern.  One of the many reasons we wanted to share our embryo adoption story was to encourage others who may be considering embryo adoption.  I am worried that some of our unlucky turn of events may actually discourage others from embryo adoption.  I have two thoughts on this:  1)  I have noticed that our embryo adoption/donation experience is not the normal timeline for most people who have chosen to pursue this type of adoption.   Many of the couples who began this journey around the same time or even after us are now well into their pregnancies.  2) While the disappointments we have had (especially in our failed matches this year) have been hard to deal with at times, I have no doubt that the joy we have received (and will receive) have made the journey worth it- cliche but true. 

The boring part of our adoption journey is nearing a close.  It's time for some excitement!  Let the hormone shots commence!

Favorite Things: J.J. Sweet Shop

Talk about a guilty pleasure!!!  A few weeks ago a friend introduced me to J.J. Sweet Shop which is this magical Korean bakery that makes the most amazing looking and tasting pastries, breads, and my favorite item. . . MOCHI!  Mochi is actually a Japanese item that is made with rice dough.  This dough is often stretched and stuffed with different fillings like gelato, sweet red bean, or my new favorite from J.J.'s cake with fresh fruit and thick whipped cream.  There is the strawberry mochi which is like strawberry shortcake inside mochi dough and then they have mango and green tea flavors.  They are amazingly good and I've never seen them sold this way anywhere else.  J.J. Sweet's mochi are definitely now one of my favorite things. We don't go often (calorie issues!!!) but we will be stopping by on Valentine's Day!!!

Adoption Update: We have answers!

This week we did get some answers about what is going on with our new donor embryo match through FASAC.  Our donor family did get back to their lawyer and the contract arrived to us on Tuesday.  We went over it with our lawyer and we are now waiting for the donor family to approve some changes (none of which are deal breakers in the case that they say no).  Once they approve or reject the changes they will draft the final contract and then the donor family and Dan and I must sign our copies of it.  Once that is done it must be submitted to FASAC and we can schedule our embryo transfer.  If we can get the contract done in the next two weeks that puts our transfer around the first week of March- most likely Feb. 28th or March 7th.  So I think this is all good news.  It does seem that the donor family is moving forward and that we will indeed be parents to 12 more embryos very soon.  Yea!  (cue the huge sigh of relief. . . )

Short Update: The Hold Up

We found out today from our lawyer that the donor family has been sitting on the finished contract for over three weeks.  Their lawyer refuses to pressure them to sign or not sign. I am going to call Dr. K's office (our clinic) and try to get some more information since the clinic and the donor family's lawyer are the only people that can contact them. I am getting closer and closer to telling Dr. K just to schedule our transfer with our two Snowflake embryos.  I think we will wait till next Monday and then move forward on our own.