We have been preparing our home for our future child/children. I honestly think it's harder to prepare for foster kids than it is to prepare for a baby. With a baby you know when they are coming, what they will need, and often times the sex of the baby. With foster kids you don't know any of that. We bought a crib this weekend and put it together today. We still need twin beds/captains bed/trundle bed. We also still need dressers, sheets, blankets, etc. We are waiting for our agency to give us the names and numbers of families in our area so we can do our observation hours. We have some training this week, are making an appointment for fingerprinting and then we will pretty much be done except for our home study. It's fun to set up the rooms for our future kids.
On the infertility journey....I have an appointment tomorrow to see if my meds worked this month. We are anxious to see what happens this time. We have decided that if this cycle doesn't end in pregnancy we are going to stop trying for a few months and pick it back up in the spring. I'm tired of the meds and side effects as well as the monthly disappointment.
Until
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Don't Forget!
Monday, September 27th is the day that Chili's will donate 100% of their proceeds to Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital for childhood cancer research. All Chili's in the US are participating.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
A Few Steps Closer
We are a few steps closer to having things complete for our foster application. Our health and fire inspection were this week and we passed. We have our CPR/First Aid training next week and then we will basically be done besides our home study and our observation hours. They are working on getting us a list of families in our area that we can work with to get our hours.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Hurdles
We have finished our foster classes! We are so excited to be done with this part. This week was much more informative than last. We do however have a few more hurdles to clear in this. A new requirement is 40 hours of us being observed with foster kids. This is new as of this month and is a little frustrating. We are so close to being done with the whole process and now this comes up. I told Jonathan the other day that I feel like we are having to fight to be parents. Fighting to get pregnant, fighting to foster, fighting to adopt. The number of children waiting for foster and adoptive families is astonishing and heart breaking. We can't wait until we are finally parents. I ask that you pray for us on this journey. Also, pray for the children who God has for us and that He will prdotect them.
~until~
~until~
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Foster Classes and Something Much More IMPORTANT!
Briefly, foster classes last Saturday were good. It was interesting to see a non-pediatrician view into child development and medications. We learned a lot and are looking forward to going back on Saturday.
Now, the more important thing!
Did you know that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month? Most likely not. Almost everyone knows that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and the world is covered in pink to raise money for this. What about childhood cancer. Did you know that Gold is the color for Childhood Cancer awareness? I have some statistics for you:
*Each school day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer.
*On the average 12,500 children and teens will be diagnosed with some form of cancer each year in this country.
*One in 330 children will develop cancer by age 20.
*Although the 5 year survival rate is steadily increasing, one quarter of children will die 5 years from the time of diagnosis.
*Cancer remains the #1 disease killer of America's children - more than Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Asthma and AIDS combined.
*In the U.S. almost 3,000 children do not survive cancer each year.
*Over the past two decades, only ONE new cancer drug has been approved for pediatric use.
*Currently there are between 30-40,000 children undergoing cancer treatment in the U.S.
*As a nation, we spend over $14 BILLION per year on the space program, but only $35 MILLION on Childhood Cancer Research each year.
*There are 15 children diagnosed with cancer for every one child diagnosed with pediatric AIDS. Yet, the U.S. invests approximiately $595,000 for research per victim of pediatric AIDS and only $20,000 for each victim of childhood cancer.
*Research funds are scarce as most money is diverted to well-publicized adult forms of cancer, such as breast and prostate.
*Right now, this second, somewhere in America, there are 7 children fighting for their lives who won't live through the day.
Those statistics SUCK! How can we as a nation ignore this? Maybe I know too many people affected by childhood cancer because of my job, but I personally think that as a nation we shouldn't stand by and do nothing. Do I think that people should support other cancer research programs, yes, because Cancer SUCKS and we need to do something about it.
What Can You Do about Childhood Cancer:
1. Wear Gold and when people ask you why tell them! Help get the word out that this is killing kids.
2. On September 27th go to Chili's! That's right, Chili's will be donating 100% of their profits that night to St. Judes Children's Research Hospital to go towards childhood cancer research. Any Chili's in the country is participating!
3. Donate Blood! Children receiving chemotherapy and having surgery require multiple blood transfusions, every person counts!
4. Join the national bone marrow registry. Simply go here: http://www.marrow.org/ to find out how. It is painless to join and who knows, maybe you could save a person's life?
5. Support this: http://www.46mommas.com/ This is 46 moms from across the country who shaved their heads together to raise money for childhood cancer research. There stories are inspiring.
6. Buy things: www.mythirtyone.com/jentufford is the catalog. Go to: http://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/catalog.aspx?eventId=E285033&from=DIRECTLINK to purchase. 10% of proceeds go to 46 Mommas until 5pm on Sept. 24th.
7. Pray for the children and families affected by childhood cancer and for the doctors that are trying to come up with cures
Until!
Now, the more important thing!
Did you know that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month? Most likely not. Almost everyone knows that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and the world is covered in pink to raise money for this. What about childhood cancer. Did you know that Gold is the color for Childhood Cancer awareness? I have some statistics for you:
*Each school day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer.
*On the average 12,500 children and teens will be diagnosed with some form of cancer each year in this country.
*One in 330 children will develop cancer by age 20.
*Although the 5 year survival rate is steadily increasing, one quarter of children will die 5 years from the time of diagnosis.
*Cancer remains the #1 disease killer of America's children - more than Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Asthma and AIDS combined.
*In the U.S. almost 3,000 children do not survive cancer each year.
*Over the past two decades, only ONE new cancer drug has been approved for pediatric use.
*Currently there are between 30-40,000 children undergoing cancer treatment in the U.S.
*As a nation, we spend over $14 BILLION per year on the space program, but only $35 MILLION on Childhood Cancer Research each year.
*There are 15 children diagnosed with cancer for every one child diagnosed with pediatric AIDS. Yet, the U.S. invests approximiately $595,000 for research per victim of pediatric AIDS and only $20,000 for each victim of childhood cancer.
*Research funds are scarce as most money is diverted to well-publicized adult forms of cancer, such as breast and prostate.
*Right now, this second, somewhere in America, there are 7 children fighting for their lives who won't live through the day.
Those statistics SUCK! How can we as a nation ignore this? Maybe I know too many people affected by childhood cancer because of my job, but I personally think that as a nation we shouldn't stand by and do nothing. Do I think that people should support other cancer research programs, yes, because Cancer SUCKS and we need to do something about it.
What Can You Do about Childhood Cancer:
1. Wear Gold and when people ask you why tell them! Help get the word out that this is killing kids.
2. On September 27th go to Chili's! That's right, Chili's will be donating 100% of their profits that night to St. Judes Children's Research Hospital to go towards childhood cancer research. Any Chili's in the country is participating!
3. Donate Blood! Children receiving chemotherapy and having surgery require multiple blood transfusions, every person counts!
4. Join the national bone marrow registry. Simply go here: http://www.marrow.org/ to find out how. It is painless to join and who knows, maybe you could save a person's life?
5. Support this: http://www.46mommas.com/ This is 46 moms from across the country who shaved their heads together to raise money for childhood cancer research. There stories are inspiring.
6. Buy things: www.mythirtyone.com/jentufford is the catalog. Go to: http://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/catalog.aspx?eventId=E285033&from=DIRECTLINK to purchase. 10% of proceeds go to 46 Mommas until 5pm on Sept. 24th.
7. Pray for the children and families affected by childhood cancer and for the doctors that are trying to come up with cures
Until!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Another One Come and Gone
So yet another month of the infertility journey has passed, without a baby made :( It wasn't a complete failure this time though. I did make 4 eggs!! That's right, 4, my best number yet! And I ovulated great according to my labs, woohoo!! We learned that there is about a 16% chance of getting pregnant per egg that is released. They only gave me half my normal dose of HCG to make me ovulate this time in an effort to keep me from ovulating all of my eggs so I wouldn't be a mom to quads :) The funny thing is when he saw the 4 eggs he said that we would only go forward with this if I understood the complications associated with higher order multiples. Then he looked from me to Jonathan and said never mind, you are a Pediatrician, you understand better than I do. I thought it was funny anyways. I enjoyed messing with Jonathan about the prospect of possibly having more than 1 or even 2 babies. But alas, we did not conceive this time :( We shall try again soon.
We are getting excited about our foster care class that starts this weekend. Tomorrow we are supposed to listen in on a conference call that is supposedly to help us understand the process just a little better before class on Saturday. We still have quite a few things that we have to get done before we can be certified, such as: get family members and future temporary care givers (aka babysitters) to fill out back ground check info, get an affadavit notarized for both of us, get our house inspected by the health and fire departments, Jonathan needs CPR and first aid training, and I actually have to have first aid training just for a card that says I completed it, which sounds a little absurd to me. We also still have to have our home study, turn in papers saying our dog is healthy and up to date on his shots, and prove that our gun is locked separately from the ammo. All this and attend 2 very full Saturdays of teaching. I'm sure I'm forgetting something because there is a lot to be completed.
The other thing we need to get done is clean out the office/sewing room so we can rearrange some furniture to make room for kiddos. There are rules about how many square feet per child are needed in a bedroom and how many kids can share one room as well as rules saying that children over 5 that are of opposite sex can't share a room. Since we said we would take 0-14 we will need a separate room for the older kid/ kids. I think we have decided to put the guest bed in the office with the desk and a chest of drawers. We will put a twin bed and a crib with a dresser and maybe a toy box and book shelf in the room that is now the guest room. Now we just need to find some of this furniture cheap! If anyone has any baby furniture, twin bed, dresser, etc they want to get rid of we may be willing to take it!
On a completely different note I made 2 pans of homemade lasagna tonight and my house now smells wonderful! Why 2 pans you may ask, we were really hungry of course, j/k :) One is for the awesome PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care) nurses and attendings who helped me survive one of my most difficult months last month. The other is for our foster care class this weekend. They have everyone bring something that you can share for a pot luck lunch and then we all pitch in and buy pizza for dinner since it is such a long day.
Until!
We are getting excited about our foster care class that starts this weekend. Tomorrow we are supposed to listen in on a conference call that is supposedly to help us understand the process just a little better before class on Saturday. We still have quite a few things that we have to get done before we can be certified, such as: get family members and future temporary care givers (aka babysitters) to fill out back ground check info, get an affadavit notarized for both of us, get our house inspected by the health and fire departments, Jonathan needs CPR and first aid training, and I actually have to have first aid training just for a card that says I completed it, which sounds a little absurd to me. We also still have to have our home study, turn in papers saying our dog is healthy and up to date on his shots, and prove that our gun is locked separately from the ammo. All this and attend 2 very full Saturdays of teaching. I'm sure I'm forgetting something because there is a lot to be completed.
The other thing we need to get done is clean out the office/sewing room so we can rearrange some furniture to make room for kiddos. There are rules about how many square feet per child are needed in a bedroom and how many kids can share one room as well as rules saying that children over 5 that are of opposite sex can't share a room. Since we said we would take 0-14 we will need a separate room for the older kid/ kids. I think we have decided to put the guest bed in the office with the desk and a chest of drawers. We will put a twin bed and a crib with a dresser and maybe a toy box and book shelf in the room that is now the guest room. Now we just need to find some of this furniture cheap! If anyone has any baby furniture, twin bed, dresser, etc they want to get rid of we may be willing to take it!
On a completely different note I made 2 pans of homemade lasagna tonight and my house now smells wonderful! Why 2 pans you may ask, we were really hungry of course, j/k :) One is for the awesome PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care) nurses and attendings who helped me survive one of my most difficult months last month. The other is for our foster care class this weekend. They have everyone bring something that you can share for a pot luck lunch and then we all pitch in and buy pizza for dinner since it is such a long day.
Until!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tired
I am tired. Tired of this whole infertility thing. Tired of the emotional roller coaster. Hopes up and then dashed, just like that. You know what else I'm tired of, people complaining. Not just regular complaining, but complaining about how they feel when pregnant, not getting enough sleep when their baby wakes up every 2 hours cause they are hungry. Not being back to a great pre-pregnancy body. Do you know what I would give to have those things. I would love to be woken up every 2 hours to the sound of my baby, or to feel nausea because I am pregnant with one of God's most amazing creations. Those things mean that you have been blessed beyond measure and people complain.
Monday, September 6, 2010
A New Blog to Follow
So I may be slightly addicted to following other people's blogs, but through this I have learned a great deal about adoption and infertility. I have added a button to the left side of my blog that shows an "Angel of the week". This is through Reece's Rainbow, which is an organization for special needs children adoption advocacy. They help make people aware of the children waiting as well as help raise funds to bring these beautiful little ones home. Please pray for this organization and the children they are supporting. Maybe someone out there is the perfect home for one of these children?
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