February 2010 Update

This start to our year has been such a whirlwind of events!

Early January brought us news that we had (yet another) missing component to our foster/adoption application through Franklin County. We needed a land-line. This came as a shocker to us because we were initially told by FCCS and by our local fire department that we would not need a land-line. We researched our options, talked to our case worker, and luckily we were able to use the Magic Jack. We apparently needed the land line to call 911 in an emergency... I guess they think that both of our 2 cell phones would be out of commission in an emergency. We sent the phone number and information off to our case worker, who was able to process the information and on Wednesday, February 10 we were finally approved to be foster/adoptive parents! :) We are now getting an appointment set up to meet with our new coordinator, who we will transition to from our case worker. Our coordinator is the person with whom all our contact will be with for foster care. We were also assigned an adoption coordinator in case we find a child on-line, or on our own that we are interested in adopting. We will then have the support of the county in the adoption process, even if we never foster the child(ren).

At the end of January we also decided that we want to try the route of having a child via pregnancy. We were offered by Jeri's oldest sister to use her eggs in order to have a child of our own. We asked my brothers if they would be willing to be our sperm donors. With confirmation of both sperm & egg available to us, we went forward with having my sister-in-law tested to see if she has a viable ovarian reserve in which we would pull eggs from. If everything looks good with the numbers, in mid-March I'll be having an ultrasound to make sure everything is ok with my uterus (I have a suspected Uterine Septum which would require surgery to remove, but that's for a later post).

I also somehow managed to develop an inflammation near my spine and hip bone which is currently causing discomfort, but was originally (in December/January) causing quite a bit of pain in my hip and leg. I saw a physiologist who sent me to Physical Therapy. It has helped a great deal, and I am now trying to decide if I should continue with physical therapy or just try to maintain what I've learned from my PT at home and hope that the discomfort will also eventually go away. I believe that it may have something to do with the fact that our mattress is sinking in the middle and I sleep on a constant tilt. Sleeping on our guest room mattress (which is much flatter in the middle) has helped some.

Early this month we decided to go ahead with plans to remodel the 1/2 bathroom in our basement and the attached room. We are going to make this our "master suite". We are expanding the bathroom, making it about 6-8 inches wider, adding a shower, installing a new sink with cabinet, and a linen closet. We'll also of course paint, have new trim and new doors. The old room will become our bedroom. In there we will install a new ceiling, fix a couple of walls, paint and add carpeting. Last weekend, with the help of 2 friends, we demolished the wall separating the bathroom and bedroom, tore out the old ceiling, removed the current sink, toilet, lights and plumbing. Beginning of March our contractor will begin the work on the bathroom and we will begin the work on the bedroom.

Tonight Jeri & I were watching The Little Couple, which is a really cute show about a couple who are both little people. The husband is about 4'6" (or something similar) and the woman is less than 4' tall. They were in the process of deciding the height of their custom made kitchen cabinets, that will be made to the height at which they would need, mostly for safety reasons (dealing with hot items). Jeri commented on how I can probably relate because I understand not always being able to reach things in the kitchen, while he doesn't even think about it because he is of "normal height". Being short does have it's perks though... I get away with leaving some of the dishes out when I put them away because I can't reach! :)