Exciting Times...

We are leaving in the morning for St. Louis for a few days. Thomas & I had some time to take off & since we only just got back from the Dominican not too long ago & are headed to Wisconsin in early October, we just wanted to get away for a few days, but not too far. When we leave there, we will head to my parents home about three hours from there to stay for a few days. We are really looking forward to our time away & our visit with our family. We really don't have any big plans while in St.Louis. We might enjoy walking around the Zoo IF it is not too hot or maybe the Botanical Gardens. However, really the only things we are planning is to sleep in, enjoy hotel life with some room service, get up & work out everyday in the awesome gym at the hotel, get ready at our leisure & then maybe do some shopping. We will likely check out the Babies-R-Us to do some window shopping too. (We don't have one in the town where we live.) The other thing that we have planned is to find a really good Sushi place one night for dinner. We really like Sushi & in order to get good Sushi, the city is our best option. We might go see a comedy show or a band somewhere too. We know this Karaoke place too that Thomas has sang at before & we will probably go there too. We have some friends that live in St. Louis, so hopefully we will get to see them while we are there. We are really looking forward to it.

We have kind of big news. Well, today was cycle day 10 for SIL. She had spoken to her Reproductive Endocrinologist on Friday who told her to start testing twice daily that day watching for her LH surge. So, that was on CD8. She had already tested for baseline on CD4, due to the fact that we know that woman her age can sometimes just have higher levels of LH all month long, so if & when we got the surge we wanted to make sure that it was a true surge. Thankfully her baseline was totally negative. The LH surge apparently is indicative that you will ovulate in the next 12-48 hours from everything that we have read. Well, guess what? SHE SURGED TODAY! She called us a little bit ago & said, "This is your surging sister in law calling!". I was so surprised as we didn't expect it for a few days yet. She called the clinic & her RE was on call. I guess the docs have Blackberry's. So, the operator asked SIL what she wanted in the message line to RE to say & she would send her a message. So, SIL told her to just put, "LH surge now." . Within about forty five seconds the RE herself called SIL back. SIL said that she is just blown away by the personal service that she has been receiving from the clinic. RE personally called SIL on Friday & said, "Your vials have arrived!". And then they proceeded to talk for twenty minutes! I think that maybe the RE is a little excited to be working with a very reproductively healthy female & perfect male sperm/specimen. I think probably she is so used to dealing with so much infertility that she is enjoying this run at this with a situation that is not her norm at the clinic. Anyway, SIL is to be there at 8AM tomorrow morning for the first insemination & at 8AM on Tuesday morning for the second. We are cautiously excited. We are just excited for now that thus far things are going so well. RE said that CD10 is perfect as that would indicate that SIL will ovulate likely around CD12 or 13 as last month she was a 27 day cycle. She is usually 27-28 days. So, "this all totally makes perfect sense"...those are the RE's words. So, anyway~potentially our baby could be conceived in the next couple of days. Wow, huh? And then...the wait for the next couple of weeks to see if this first round results in conception. Ugh...the waiting! Considering what we have been through, we have fairly low expectations that it will happen the first month, but statistically the RE says the chance is about 40-70%...so, those are pretty good odds really.

Well, gotta continue working on some cleaning & household chores. You know, laundry & such. Want it all done prior to being away for a bit. The neighbors take care of things for us while we are away, but just like things to be in order when we get home.

Take care. Have a good week. I will likely not have Internet access all week. I hope referrals show up or at the very least some great rumors regarding referrals start to surface. Thomas & I have been watching the Olympic trials & are planning to watch the Opening Ceremonies on the 8th. We will be glad when they are done & over...the Olympics I mean. We are more interested in seeing what will come of the CCAA's progress after they end than we are interested in the Olympics. I must say though, that the trials have been exciting & we have enjoyed watching them together the last few days. Our fingerprints expire in September. Our agency tells us to let them expire. Oh my...I don't know what I think about that. Guess we will dive into all of that when we get home. Our I-171H expires 12/22/08. According to our agency that is the one that we need to stay on top of . It all confuses us to be totally honest. At this point I am not sure the right hand knows what the left is doing. You know? (All of this is for anyone involved in a China adoption right now. For the rest of you, most of that will mean nothing to you.) A lot of agencies I guess are now saying 31-48 months for a total wait time. We are about a year in. We have to admit that for the very first time we have pondered the thought that if this situation with our SIL works out, what will we do? If she would have twins, would we consider pulling out of China? I don't know. We doubt that we would, but anymore we just almost feel like we just want our babies & want to live our lives. We are tired of this being the focus of our lives & feeling so consumed by it all. I know that you understand. Actually, SIL surprised us again the other day by saying that IF this works out & goes off without a hitch that she would likely do it again for us as soon as she safely could. Wow, huh? We will just see. One day at a time. Let's get pregnant the first time first! :o)

Like I said, have a good week. I will be thinking of you & hoping to come home to a new date posted that the CCAA referred to that is way far into the future & to a RQ post with lots of gorgeous little faces that will soon be coming home!