Fall Festival

It's been a long time since I was in a 3-legged race and participated in a balloon toss. I did both of those today at our church's fall festival. Every Halloween weekend we head up to Thomasville, Georgia to a friend's house for the festival. And every year I have come to expect the same thing ... beautiful weather, donkeys and horses to pet, cotton candy, finger lickin' fried grouper, and pleasant conversation. Today, I added apple bobbin, races, and water balloon tosses to the mix for the kids. And we all had fun. Including Petra who was not the least bit frightened of the donkeys or horses.


Speaking of Petra, guess who has decided that walking is the new fad. She is up all over the place. Taking 10-15 steps at a time ... I would say today she walked about 65% of the time.

And while I know this has nothing to do with the rest of the post, I wanted to write just briefly about "family planning." We've been talking about both fertilty treatments and adoption (both domestic and international).

It's been 14 months now since our last FET. To the doctors this seems like forever. Let me explain. We had a phone consult a couple weeks ago with SIRM. It went fantastically. I could not have asked for a better conversation ... nearly an hour on the phone with a well qualified specialist for free. He gave us good news. Actually he told us there was a chance we could get pregnant on our own, not a very high one, but he wouldn't exclude it. This is completely different than what any other doctor has told us in the last two years. Now obviously, this type of miracle has not happened ... it was just nice to hear a doctor tell us this.

We have talked about going to a different clinic when we get ready for a new IVF cycle. Yes, that's right at some point we will start this whole thing again. Assuming we can find the money. This clinic has an outcome based plan ... basically 3 fresh IVF cycles, plus all the frozen cycles, for close to one cost .... and if you do not have a live baby then you get a portion of the money back. But the one thing I found most interesting about this consultation was that Thomas and I learned that this is really hit or miss. The doctors have some idea of what works, but they really don't know exactly which embryo will develop, which will not ... it is hit or miss. If it doesn't work, you just keep trying and at some point ... you get a miracle.

So, I asked how fast would we have to do all 3 fresh cycles if all are needed ... the answer was that they usually like to see it completed in a year. Good googly moogly ... I said under my breath. Assuming you have to use all 3 cycles plus any frozen cycles means you would need to travel nearly every month out of town, by plane, and stay in a hotel for a week each month. So we aren't just talking about the $25-$30K for the doctor, but plane tickets each month and a hotel each month. Not to mention taking off work for a week each time, and finding day care. The time committment alone is exponentially more than I ever contemplated.

Put this in comparison to our yearly procedure (on average) to a clinic that is a 2.5 hour drive away ... and it is going to be very expensive.

So, we have a lot to think about and figure out. We'd like to do this before I turn 35 becuase that is the magic age where statistics show a marked decrease for success.

The cost really is a no brainer to us. Family is more important than any material items that money could buy. It will just mean less stuff, and maybe a car that isn't so nice ... and well, what's wrong with a simpler life?