Contract to be notarized!!!

I just got an email from the attorney saying the donor parents agreed to our contract without requesting ANY changes. We were really very surprised that they requested no changes.

So now we sign and have it notarized. They sign and have it notarized. Then our attorney will create our clearance for the doctor!!!

We're getting there!!!

Ongoing this past week

Monday we had our phone conference with our attorney. It went really well and she was really nice. I felt lead to ask if we could share our email address with the donor parents and she said she would mention it to their attorney. I also paid their attorney fee this week.

Praise God we still have quite a bit of adoption money saved back. The next thing to pay for will be my meds. I'm hoping they won't be too expensive.

My sweet parents offered their credit card to pay for the cost of the transfer. Of course we will be paying the card ourselves, but just the fact that they had relieved us of that burden for now means so much.

We got an email from our attorney yesterday with an update. She said the donor family don't have access to email so the contract draft had to be mailed to them. They should be having their phone conference early next week. Prayers that it all goes well and that we can complete the signatures and notarizing in the next week or so.

I was SO hoping to be in CA August 5th, but as it gets closer I'm doubting we will be there than. :( Oh well, all on God's perfect time. ;)

I cannot wait to meet my precious babies!!!

Piece of mind...

We had our phone conference with the attorney yesterday. We'd read over the contract and only one thing bothered me. The clause that states they can't contact us (ever), we can't contact them (ever) and our children can't contact each other's children (ever). That part just really bothered me. I have lots of info for my son on his adoption and about his Birthmom and just in case he ever wants to search for her, I hope that info will help him. With these children I have NOTHING to offer them. So while going through the contract, the attorney got to that clause and said we could change it if we wanted. Well that was my chance to tell her I wanted to at least offer the donor parents our email address so they could contact us if they liked. She agreed to ask the donor parents if they wanted any contact at all.

While I don't expect them to want contact, I hope they will at least take my email address in case they ever change their minds. At least now I can have piece of mind knowing that I tried to keep contact. So if my children ever ask me, I can tell them that we offered contact. That's the best I can do in this situation.

I have an appt on July 1st to have the blood tests and cultures for all the sexually transmitted diseases. The clinic requires that testing to be done before transfer. So I'll get that done and wait for the attorney to let me know if the donor parents accepted our contract as is or requested changes.

I keep saying this, but it's true! We are getting SO close!!!!

Got more paperwork and a surprise!!!

Yesterday we received lots of info. First off we got the draft of the legal agreement between us and the donor parents. It felt like I was completing an adoption not starting one. LOL There were words like "termination of rights" which you usually don't see until you have your child in your arms and are finalizing the adoption.

I didn't find any issues with what I read in it so I guess we will proceed with it as is. The only part that made me sad was that we can have no contact with the donor parents. That was hard to read. I wish it wasn't that way and we could at least know who they are so our children could know some day.

The second thing that came yesterday was the consent forms for the clinic along with the profile of the donor parents. The biggest surprise was that we also received two pictures of their son who was created from these embryos. To say the least, he is adorable!!! It really put a face to our babies. He is so very similar to Zach in coloring. He even has a few features that look like Zach.

According to the profile, the Mom has hazel eyes and the Dad has curly hair. It would be so neat if one of our children had hazel eyes too!!! I can just picture this olive skinned, hazel eyed, curly headed kid!!! Cute!!! Of course I don't care what they look like because my babies are ALL cute. ;)

I'm choosing not to share the pictures with anyone outside of close family to protect the privacy of the donor family. I can promise though that he's a cutie pie! :)

I've decided from now on to refer to our embryos as our babies. (not one baby, but two babIES) because we will be implanting 2 embryos and until my OB says otherwise, I will act as though I am carrying twins. I really believe in positive thinking and so I'm thinking that both embryos will take and we will have twins. (God willing of course)

Well Happy Father's Day to my Husband. We just added a few more to our family. ;)

Email from the attorney

I got an email today from the attorney saying that she'll be sending our contract sometime tomorrow. I sure hope the clinic consents get here soon!!!

Once we have the contract we will sign it and then it goes to the donor couples attorney for them to review.

Lawyer's retainer in the mail

Today I put the retainer in the mail. I'm still very excited that we will soon be in CA, but I'm also getting a little nervous now. I think it's just finally hitting me that this is real.

I kept my niece yesterday. She's 11 months old. I was so tired when she left that it made me question if I can really raise another child. I think it was just my fears coming through and not that I'm too old to parent. I'll be celebrating my 32nd birthday tomorrow. Never did I think I'd be having a baby at 32, but it's God's plan not mine.

Anyway, another step down and just a few more to go. At least on the adoption side. Then it's on to the pregnancy side. :)

Another step forward

Today I am still floating on cloud 9, but had to come back to earth long enough to call the attorney.

Susan Katzman will be our attorney. She emailed me the retainer just now. I've got it all filled out and will be mailing it either tonight or first thing in the morning. Along with the $750 retainer fee.

Once she receives this info, we are looking at about 2 weeks (depending on how quick the donor parents sign) to complete the legal part of this process.

Then it'll be time for shot (known as baby glue from here on out) and meds.

We are getting SO close. Please God help me get through this with at least one healthy baby.

We have embies!!!!!

Last night I dreamed that I was really pregnant. I was SO big. So today I just felt I really needed to call and see where we stood. So I called right after lunch. I was home and it was about 6:30 and so I had lost hope that she'd call me back today. Then the phone rang.

It was Arlene telling me that we have embryos!!! Not 1, not 4, but 16!!!!!!! (8) blastocysts and (8) 3-day. The donor parents had one boy from this batch. The Mom was in her early 30's and they used donor sperm.

So now she'll send me the consent forms and my prescriptions. I have to call the attorney tomorrow to do the legal paperwork.

Then we get my cycles regulated and 4-6 weeks later I'll be I'm Cali!!!!!

Here I come babies! Here I come!

Still waiting. :(

Well this week wasn't our week either. I'm ok with it now, but when I talked to Arlene on Tuesday I was really upset. Then to hear about a women in Memphis who left her FOUR month old baby in a hot car while she went shopping!!!! I was just so upset that it had to be so hard for us.

I've been trying to hold my weight stable because Dr Kumar had asked me if I could. So far I've done ok with it. I decided this week that since I've got to wait on our adoption, I might as well start losing weight again. At least it will be something to get my mind off this adoption.