Post Turkey Trot 10K present

Thought these might go well for a post run/walk this Thanksgiving!

Christmas is coming!

These look pretty awesome for a Christmas present for the kiddos!

Awesome Shorts!

New Toy

So I just tried this today and loved it. I only got my hair stuck once but that was totally user error. If you buy one from this link we get up to 10% of the purchase price which will go towards adoption fees!

First Step, New Journey

Today we went to DC for an adoption seminar.  Yes, we decided to move on to adoption.  I found out that my endo more than likely caused by a crappy C-section is now in the walls of my uterus, right where an embryo needs to implant.  So even if we had went with a donor egg but his stuff, it probably would not have implanted.  If we had the money, I'd say let's use a surrogate and donor egg but we are not independently wealthy (However, we DO play the lottery).

The seminar was info as well as question and answer.  They also had an adoptive family come and tell us how it went for them.  Oz came with us of course.  He was actually quite excited at the idea of adoption and having a sibling.  We wondered how he might react, but he was very excited.  So much so that at the end of the seminar he asked the staff of the Agency we are working with, where his little brother was and why can't he take him home.

We ended up going with American Adoptions.  We liked their approach.  They aren't pushy or overbearing and spent time after the event to answer a billion questions from not only us but several other prospective parents.  We also liked that the family that spoke to us that day was a military family.  Sadly, some agencies shy away from military families because we move -a lot.  This made me feel better knowing that another military family was successful in adopting.  They were also helpful by telling us some of the ins and outs of things like Tricare, DEERS, etc that the Agency would not necessarily know.

It's costly, unfortunately.  And the paperwork for the home study is about as bad as getting a TS clearance.  But we are on our journey to expand our family and make Oz a big brother.

Happy Birthday to me

Well I'm now 42 and we've come to the conclusion that my body is done having babies. We have been blessed with one child, one beautiful, smart, funny, loveable son who is totally awesome and cool. It's taken me a long time to come to the understanding that my body didn't fail me, because well we have a six year old, a healthy, happy six year old in our lives. He has dad's body, hair, eyes and fingers. He has my nose, smile, ears and somehow managed to have my brother's sense of humor. So my body is done having babies but it didn't fail me with blessing me with one son who is a wonderful member of our family. I wish I had seen that sooner, had understand that I have something so wonderful sitting right in front of me. But, I do see it and I know how lucky we are to have a great kid as our own.

I can do it myself mother

Well the results of the surgery wasn't the greatest news. So we've been focusing on what we can do all on our own. We are pretty sure that IVF wouldn't work for us, so we've ruled that out. We are still muddling over a donor egg and adoption. Maybe with the pressure off and no more needles (at least for a while) that maybe if its meant to be we'd get pregnant on our own. I need a new job though, this place is burning me out and leadership is umm well not my favourite. I'll behave though and not totally vent it out here. So keep your fingers crossed that this works and we get preggo or I find a new job far away from the crazies.

Surgery

Well after me pushing the issue with my RE, I ended up being referred to see a surgical specialist. My instinct kept telling me that I needed this. And well....I did. After 4 hours I came out being told that my right tube was fully blocked, scarred and infected. My left tube was partially blocked (which he cleared). He removed a bunch of endometriosis, as well as scar tissue and adhesions at the C-section incision. Lastly, he removed a fibroid from my uterus. It seemed like it was going well and he was optimistic that we could get pregnant all on our own. Six weeks later, I was at my follow up appointment and found out that umm well, my fibroid was actually the devil in disguise. I found out I have adenomyosis. This is endometriosis in the uterine wall, which well SUCKS! And to add to that hot fudge sundae of suck, the most of the endo found was right in the spot of the uterus where the embryo would implant. We have a few decisions to make now. I have a few things that I'll need to overcome before we can decide what we want to do now in our quest to have a bigger family.

Surviving

I've survived 2 days of the Chinese herbs. So I think I can stand it for a while then and see if they help too.

Chinese Herbs blow

Ugh! Wow, I don't know what happened, but I tried Chinese herbs from my acupuncturist today to help with baby making, balance hormones and reduce my endo symptoms. She said it smells bad and tastes worse. It smelled fine considering I didn't breath through my nose. I got the first third down, but apparently drank the second third too quickly afterwards and um up they came. The last third stuck. It doesn't really taste bad, weird after taste but really not too bad. Not sure why I didn't take the second gulp so well - maybe I caught too much air. I'll try it though, again tomorrow and hopefully it will go better the second go round.