Last Adoption Update of 2010

2PN Embryo - 16-18 hours old - the male and female DNA pronuclei are next to each other in the center of the embryo.

Everyone (Dr. K and his office staff, our new donor family, our lawyer) is on vacation until the end of the first week of January so things have not really progressed since before Christmas.  I love Christmas vacation but this year I will welcome January 2011 with open arms!  Dan and I are ready to get this show on the road!  It has been almost two and half months since our first FET and our second FET probably won't be until early February at best.  We did get the egg donor and sperm donor profiles for our new set of 12 2PN embryos that we are adopting from Dr. K's office.  It was fun looking at pictures and reading all about the genetic parents of these embies. 

12 embryos might sound like A LOT of babies to some of you out there but I was reading up on 2PN embryos and learned a few things:   2PN stands for "pronuclear" which means that the egg has been fertilized for 18 hours and is a single cell with two pronuclei.  (One pronuclei has the male DNA and other other with the female DNA which has not fused together yet.) This is much different than our first match where the embryos were 5 days old at the blastocyst stage.  When our 2PN embryos are thawed they will have to grow for a few days in a petri dish before they can be transferred to my body.  I read that roughly 30% of 2PN embryos make it to the blastocyst stage so it will be interesting to talk to Dr. K and see if he wants to do a 3 day embryo transfer or a 5 day blastocyst transfer.  It seems like there will be more decision making with a group of 2PN embryos than our last transfer with 5 day blasts.  You know. . . you think you know about "baby making" and then you read up on embryos, pronuclei, blasts, etc. and you really realize what a miracle a baby is.  I am glad we have Dr. K to help us through all of this.  He is great at explaining things and always draws funny diagrams to go along with his explanations. 

Let's hope that our adoption of these 12 embryos goes quickly and smoothly!  Happy New Year everyone!

Retro Baking: Christmas Booty 2010

I'm a teacher.  And sometimes when Christmas break begins I just want to flop.  This year was different.  All this week I had the urge to bake and decorate Christmas cookies from my favorite cookie book:  Betty Crocker's Cooky Book published in 1963.  My mom always had this cooky book since I could remember and it was our favorite book to bake cookies from.  I love the 1960s display pictures throughout the book.

Groovy cookie displays

  I am a history lover and there is a section of the book that explains story behind the most popular cookie from every decade from the 1880s to the 1960s.  My favorite decade cookie is the Carmel Refigerator cookie which became popular during the 1940s since women had to work outside the home during WWII and they needed to find less time-consuming recipes that required only a few common ingredients.  They are soooooo deceptively wonderful.  They look pretty plain.  Little misshapen brown ovals.  Then you put one in your mouth and it just melts.  Dan's friend calls them "little delicious clouds".

Carmel Refrigerator Cookie

When I moved out of the house and got married I missed the Cooky Book.  The pages were sticky and stained on the pages where our most treasured recipes were. 

Ethel's Sugar Cookie with cream cheese frosting

Then one day at Sam's Club I spotted THE Cooky Book.  A reprinting of the 1963 classic in its original format!  I was beyond excited and bought it on the spot.  Now the pages of my favorite cookie recipes have their "battle scars" too:  Ethel's Sugar Cookies, Cream Cheese Cookies, Snickerdoodles, Gingerbread Cut Outs and of course Carmel Refrigerators.  One day I will branch out and try the colorful Bon Bon cookies that were so popular during the 1960s French style cooking craze. 

Mrs. Brennan's Scottish Shortbread

One new cookie that I tried this year was Mrs. Brennan's Scottish Shortbread.  I got the recipe from a blog online.  In the 1940s a woman got it from the Scottish family that rented the basement out in their building.  It was passed down in the woman's family until it was posted on the blog this Christmas.  It was so easy to make (only 3 ingredients) and really delicious.  Here is what my poor kitchen looked like after my cookie baking fiesta.  (YIKES!)

  Oh and I tried to make my snowflake gingerbread cookies look like this:
but instead they turned out like this:

My sorry excuse for a piped snowflake cookie.

Ha Ha Ha!  Oh well. . . at least they tasted decent.  All the leftovers are going to work with Dan tomorrow while I go to spin class!  =)

Merry Christmas from the Shacks!

In Oia Village on the island of Santorini, Greece - August 2010

Merry Christmas from the Shacks!  Here is a little musical snack from our Christmas Eve family soiree:
First Course - Hark the Herald
Second Course - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

For "The Infertiles". . . a little satire does the heart good.

I don't post directly about infertility a ton on this blog.  In my own heart I have chosen to abandon the bitterness that infertility can bring and move on to pursuing the hope that adoption brings to an infertile couple.  That doesn't mean that I don't still struggle with the social aspect of infertility from time to time.  I came across this satire dealing with infertility and Facebook and thought I would share it with my infertile sisters and brothers out there.  (Warning: I hate profanity.  This article uses it twice and  I apologize if it offends you.)

Also, I want to say that this satire more than implies that a fertile person can never understand or sympathize with the pain of infertility.  While there are people out there who are like that, I want to thank my fertile friends and family members who have reached out to me in my struggle with infertility.  Thank you for listening, asking questions, praying for me, encouraging me, and including me in your lives even when it might be awkward.  While sometimes infertility is lonely, I don't feel alone.  God has gifted Dan and I with wonderful friends and family and we are grateful for that.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------(Start of Satire)
There was a good article on the Washington Post web site earlier this week about being infertile on Facebook.  "Now, when more than a half-billion people use Facebook, couples yearning for children say they are trapped," writes Ian Shapira. "They are unwilling to detach from the social network, but unable to avoid its frequent reminders — fetal sonograms are seemingly ubiquitous — of what might elude them forever."
Now, I was never on Facebook during vulnerable times, so I don't know quite how it feels.  I can vividly imagine it, though.  Here is how I think it might be, seen from the point of view and the news feed of one totally fictitious Anita Child.  (To help me out I've called on some old friends.  Facebook's just great for reconnecting with all the people we hated in high school.)







...Do I have the general idea?

Posted by Julie at 10:53:41 PM in I am full of good ideas

Welcome to our rollercoaster! It is quite a ride!

Well today brought much better news that we were not expecting.  Dr. K's office called and the new donor family has already signed the release papers and have begun working with their lawyer on the legal paperwork.  We also contacted the lawyer we are working with to begin our part of the paperwork.  We won't get the donor profiles and embryology report for a few more days but we did learn a little bit more about this match:  there are 12 embryos, they are frozen at the 2PN stage (18 hours old), they were created "recently" in Dr. K's lab from donor eggs and donor sperm, there have been multiple pregnancies from this batch of embryos, they are caucasian.  I am not sure how long the legal process will take or how expensive it is.  It seems like they are trying to move things along quickly for us.  We are already further ahead with this clinic match in two days than we were at six weeks with the last failed clinic match.  We are very glad for that!  I don't want to get my hopes up but it seems like we may be on track for a late February transfer.  =)

Moving on. . . sort of. . .

Dr. K confirmed for us today that our new clinic donor family had changed their mind about the donation.  He was really surprised that the couple backed out of the donation; we were not so surprised.  We told him that we wanted to move forward with our FET in January with our Snowflakes embies but they want us to wait for a new match that they have ready for us.  We don't know much about this new match other than there are 12 embryos and they were recently created in Dr. K's lab with donor sperm and donor eggs.  They said that the office is closed for the holidays until January 8th anyways and that the legal paperwork would begin this Wednesday (Dec. 15).  They want me to stay in a holding pattern through the holidays before we make any big decisions about embryo transfers.  More waiting!  Just what I wanted for Christmas. . .  =(

Okay, the brighter side is that Dr. K seems determined to get us matched with some more embryos and we are really hopeful about working with him.  We realize that the timing is and will be way different than what we want but for now we are committed to sticking with embryo adoption/donation until it becomes apparent that we should move in a different direction.

Christmas Concert 2010

Every year I look forward to performing with my fellow musicians at church and the Christmas concert is one of my favorite performances.  Last night was so fun as we celebrated together with song the birth of our Savior who came to redeem us from our sinful state and a fate of eternal death.  What a wonderously joyful season it is.