Me with a Peruvian Boa

When life gives you lemons, make baby forumla.

Huh? Let me explain.


When I was pregnant this last fall, I registered on a couple of websites to track the progress of our pregnancy. I also bought something at a maternity store, all of which asked for my due date. One of these places sold my name address and due date. So starting in late June I started getting "Welcome Baby" packages from baby formula manufacturers. The first time I got one of those packages out of the mailbox it nearly sucked the air right out of me. It was a reminder that we will never hold our precious Bella in our earthly arms. I was crushed, and Mark just wanted to get rid of the formula. Once I got myself together, I checked the date on the formula can. It's good for nearly a year. There's a reasonable chance we could have a baby home in that time. Since then I've gotten what seems to be weekly formula checks. They are basically coupons. I hate to see them go to waste. So I've been buying formula. We don't want to spend a ton of money on formula right now because we don't know when baby will be coming home, and the last thing we want to do is waste money. So I've been buying mostly Ready to Use formula. (It's liquid, don't add water). This is the most expensive formula per serving. But it's the cheapest per can. So if I have a $5 formula check, and the Ready to Feed formula is $5.88 to $6.49 per can (depending upon brand) I can use the check and not have too much invested. I'm building up quite a stash. Baby isn't even here yet, and he or she already has their own cabinet in the kitchen.


I figure if we don't have a baby home by the time this stuff gets closer to expiring, I'll donate the stash to the local pregnancy crisis center, and be a blessing to someone else.

Projects, Projects...

I was gently reminded by someone that my blog is once again grossly out of date. I have no idea why, but I haven't been very diligent in keeping the blog updated. It's not like nothing has been happening. No, we don't have any significant updates, like baby announcements. Believe me, when that times comes, it'll be all over this blog! But we've certainly been making progress.

First things first. I'm once again unemployed. This time I don't qualify for unemployment. Oh well. I knew right away the previous job was not going to be a good fit for me. Apparently the last half a dozen people who have worked there knew the same thing... if you know what I mean! I told them after three days that I was going to continue looking for other work. I wasn't quitting, but I would be looking for another job. I stayed there for three weeks until they had me replaced. When I went to the unemployment office to reopen my claim, because I didn't quit my job, and I wasn't being fired for cause. They said that by telling them I was looking for another job it was as good as quitting. I could fight their decision, but I don't have it in me. So for the last three weeks I've been working on projects :)

The biggest project I've been working on is our adoption profile! This is HUGE! Our home study is almost complete, and the profile was the next step before the waiting list. Different agencies have different expectations for the profile. Ours calls them "Picture Pages" and the "Dear Birthmom Letter." We took those two things and combined them into one thing. It's basically like a scrapbook of our lives. I used my digital scrap booking program to do it, and put it together like a book, and had it printed at a local print shop. It turned out beautifully. I'm very happy with it, and I've gotten great feedback from people who have looked at it. We do have a unique opportunity at our agency to have a lady on staff that placed her son for adoption when she was younger. She brings a unique set of eyes to review this kind of thing. Here is the cover of our book. Because this blog is public, and the information in the profile is somewhat private, I'm not going to share the whole thing here. I would be happy to share it with individuals who want to see it, just let me know. I just don't want to put it out here for the whole world to see. I would like to have some control over who I share it with.

I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm fairly crafty. I've made lots of gifts for friends and families. Lots of these things have been baby gifts. For anyone on the infertility journey, you will understand that baby gifts are tough. It's not that we don't want anyone else to be blessed with a baby. But seeing someone else blessed with the one thing we want and can't have hurts. I've made a very conscious effort over the last few years to make gifts for friends and family with their new arrivals. This forces me to take my focus off myself, and helps keep me out of a pity party.

A lot of these gifts have been rag quilts. One problem I have had with making the rag quilts, is that sometime they are hard to let go of. I imagine my own little one wrapped in the quilt. When I really liked the end product, I would often buy extra fabric to tuck away in hopes of making one for our own child. At one point, soon after we chose our nursery theme several years ago I started a Classic Pooh rag quilt. This was very early in our TTC (trying to conceive) journey. I got very discouraged with the results of a treatment cycle, and put the quilt away without completing it. I got it out and finished it this week. I decided to make another small quilt. Then I bought some flannel and used my serger to make several receiving blankets. Then I made a stack of burp cloths out of the scraps. I'm on a roll!

I fully realize that we could have a long wait. But we could also have a very short wait. I think that keeping busy has been therapeutic for me. I think we pretty much have the basics covered. We could bring a baby home tomorrow and we'd have what we need to care for the baby initially. That's an exciting feeling!

So there's an overview of some of the things that have been keeping me busy. :)