A big shout out to women who are willing to give babies up for adoption

Idiotic comment #whatever from my mom:

"I just don't understand how someone can carry a baby for nine months and then give it up for adoption."

Yes, she really said that to me. I want to say thank you to all the women out there who are willing to do just exactly this. Because of you, I will be able to fulfill my dream of being a parent (and yes, I pointed that out to my mom).

In other news, I went to NYC this weekend for my friend Reb's son's baby naming. Reb is one of my Dork sisters, and her son was born after several years/rounds of IVF. Unfortunately he was diagnosed with hemophilia, and they had his bris in the hospital. He had his naming this past weekend and I flew to NY. I stayed with Reb and her husband, and got to enjoy the baby all weekend. He is wonderful! We also got to have lunch with one of my other Dork sisters, who is picking up her Korean son today in Detroit. Lots of good news in Dorkland recently (another Dork sister had a c-section yesterday to deliver her son; we're still waiting on an update). Other than the cold on Sunday (and the woeful lack of front door cab service in Brooklyn), we had a lovely weekend.

More nursery pics!

Here are a few photos showing the play room and the new dresser we got for baby's room. The playroom was a crawlspace behind a closet, and the previous owner ripped out the closet and finished it off. So it's a neat nook kind of space, with cupboards all the way down the wall for toys and books. One wall, that you can see here, has that chalkboard paint so they can draw on it. The room extends back several feet to the left behind the closet (bottom photo) and has a slanted ceiling from the roof. We're going to get a little table and chairs for in there.

Our new and improved profile

I heard from T on Monday, and she went over the edits for our profile with me. She had pretty minor suggestions, tweaked some wording here and there, and had us take out our wedding photo. Most birth mothers are single and don't have happy feelings towards men, so she says no wedding pics. All her criticism was constructive and we now have a new and improved profile. I made 5 copies at Kinkos yesterday ($75, ouch) and now have a packet to mail her after work today with the profiles, our application, contract, home study, and a check for the referral program. She has two biracial situations to present us to, one due in April and one in May. We decided we'd really like to have a biracial child, because the mix of genes is so lovely. So now we wait, and see what happens.

I do have new nursery pics, but I haven't taken them off the camera yet. We went to Ikea last weekend and got a white dresser so baby now has a place for clothes storage. I also put together my Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Mobile and attached it to the crib, and hung the cool clock from my dad on the wall. It looks like a real nursery now! And I ordered my Hotsling and my Kecci diaper bag. Both arrived and are wonderful. I'm going to brave the new nephew this weekend and see if he and Kayla fit in the sling, it seems small to me, but I got the size they recommended based on my measurements. We also got our sampler pack of cloth diapers from Tiny Tush, it was pretty overwhelming! I need to find directions on how to use all these diapers on the website.

The adoption ride is much more fun than the IVF ride

We spent 24 hours of insanity starting on Wednesday night, when T (my facilitator) called us about a situation. The baby had already been born, and we would have needed to fly to Las Vegas today to pick him up if we were chosen. It was between us and one other couple, and in the end we were not chosen. The other adoptive mother was going to take a full year off then have her mother watch the baby, whereas we can only take 3 months and then baby will be going to the Montessori school for daycare. I am a working mother, and I love my job.

So, while it was insane waiting yesterday, it also was kind of exhiliarating, mostly due to the short timeframe. Surprisingly, I really feel okay about it and didn't shed a single tear. I felt WAY worse after a failed IVF cycle. At least we can keep working on this (no delays!), and I know my baby will be here soon. T says since we are so flexible that it should happen quickly, and she even predicted 2 or 3 more profiles and then it would happen. S he's going to help me redo the profile over the weekend and start getting it out there.

I learned a lot yesterday too - I need to keep a few more things in my adoption file for quick access; my boss and coworkers are amazing; my friends are amazing; my husband was with me every step of the day; I need to buy diapers; and that T is absolutely fuckingamazing. She was so helpful, supportive, gave me frequent updates, and was wonderful throughout the whole day. I feel very very good about using her and know that she is going to find us our baby.

The floors are done!

The floors have been sealed, and WOW what a difference in the color! Sophie and Sadie say that the tennis ball bounces much better on the new floor than on the carpet.