Well, it's been a little over two years since my last post. In all honesty, it got depressing to basically update on something that just wasn't happening. We were both busy with our jobs and life in general.
So, the last two years. Let's see...I don't really remember too much in 2011 to write about, is that bad? It must have been a big blur! I'm sure BSU football was involved, as well as camping, trips to Elko and lots of friends, whitewater rafting, dogs...Oh, and we did our annual Browns trip to San Francisco this time. We flew into Reno, and then drove to SF with Mom & MOD. We did the full tourist experience, because K has never had the fun of exploring SF before. Alcatraz was the favorite, as well as the food at Tadick Grill. It was Halloween weekend, and that was a sight to see!! The Browns lost (of course!) but it was still an amazing trip.
2012: We did a frozen cycle in February. Basically, they thaw out the embryo's that were frozen from the fresh IVF. I did a ton of injections, but this time, they were horrendous. The worst part was that they were Intramuscular (IM) injections, so into a muscle instead of just under the skin, and I had to do two daily. Since K is still terrified of needles, I had to do them myself. But IM can't be done in the belly. Ideally, they should be done in the bum. But, since I can't contort that easily, I did them into my thigh. By the end of it, I was almost in a wheelchair because my muscles were so shot from the injections. I had huge knots in each thigh and my doctor was amazed I was still walking! Everything looked good, we did the transfer, and...nothing. No sticky bean. Life goes on.
We were fortunate enough to go to Hawaii again! Yep, K earned his 2nd President's Club honor. This year it was the Four Seasons Maui. We were prepared for this trip, so we stayed a few extra days and did lots of fun excursions. They had to drag me out of the water each day, as the snorkeling was amazing! We did a whale-watching tour and saw a few playful baby humpbacks. We made new friends and were sad to come home.
We bought a new camp trailer that summer as well, so most of the summer was spent camping as often as possible. We did discover new destinations, explored the original Oregon Trail, spent 4 amazing days in Hell's Canyon and took the mutts with us often.
Our Annual Browns trip was to Indianapolis. Let me tell you, what an AMAZING city! It was so clean and there was so much to do just walking distance from our hotel. We stayed right down town and could see Lucas Oil Stadium from our hotel. We did a murder mystery dinner, Indy 500 and kissed the bricks at the finish line, the NCAA Hall of Champions, the War Memorial Museum, the Indianapolis Art Museum...and of course, the football game. Again, the Browns lost, but the experience was awesome. The stadium is beautiful and, as disappointing as it was to not see Petyon play (he went to the Broncos last year), it was so cool to see how he still had the crowd trained to be silent on offensive plays. You could hear a pin drop! But, the coolest part of the trip was meeting Rebecca Lobo. If you don't know who she is, Google her. Short of it, she's an Olympic Gold Medal Women's Basketball star who is now a commentator. The WNBA Championship was that week and game 4 in Indy (Fever!) was there. She was staying in our hotel and having drinks at the bar. Naturally, K recognized her and started chatting away. She even bought our drinks! She told us that Game 4 was the next night, and balcony tickets were $10. So we figured we can't lose. I know zilch about basketball and negative zilch about Women's Basketball, but it is still a fun time. So we went, experienced the beautiful new digs and watched the Indiana Fever win the championship game! That was pretty darn cool, I don't care who you are!!
So, fast forward to now. I had surgery on my hand/wrist in February and I'm slowly gaining function back from that, but it's a slow, painful process with nerves entrapped and junk. Oh, and K was nominated by the bank to be sponsored for the Graduate School of Retail Bank Management. Basically, it is a three year graduate degree in banking. They are paying for everything, and most of it is online. He gets to enjoy three weeks in the summer in South Carolina (ha!). This July will be his 2nd year. They stay in the dorms, eat in the cafeteria, etc. He's a college student all over again! Also in the past two years, I've had two new nephews born. 6 of our "close friends" couples have had babies. We're surrounded by babies! We did see a new specialist out of Salt Lake City, and he was awesome. K loved him. He has a program that does 4 fresh IVF and unlimited frozen (based on how many you have to freeze each time). It is a 100% money-back program if you don't take a baby home. It's also $20,000 cash and does not include the medications. So, we'll get to that when we win the lottery. *sigh*
The reason for updating this blog, is that we have decided to take the re-leap back into foster parenting. We have a huge support network now and just feel much more prepared. Plus, our experience as CASA/GAL (court appointed special advocate/guardian ad litem) has taught us a lot more of the in's & out's of the foster care system and what our rights are. So, while we are not actively pursuing IVF at the moment due to money constraints, I figured we would chronicle the foster care process. Maybe it will open (or shut) some eyes of other prospective foster parents. Keep in mind, we have done this before, but it was a HORRENDOUS experience. It has taken 5 years to be prepared to embark on this again. Hopefully, this time around the results will be better!
It is starting slowly for now. We submitted the application last week. I spoke with a 'recruiter' today and the licensing worker. We still have to get fingerprinted and do the background checks again, as well as the home visit since we're in a new house (well, new from last time we did this). My fingerprinting is scheduled for May 8th, if that gives you any idea of how slow it all is. But, I did find out that we don't have to go through all of the training again! Woo-hoo!! There's 8 weeks of time we don't have to lose this summer!!
I hope to be a bit more productive this time around on the blog, but we'll see. Summer is coming up quick and the last thing I want is to be behind a computer any longer than needed!
