Photo Credit: Woman's Day

After much anticipation, I know you guys are anxiously awaiting for me to publish the puzzle piece count! We have been over-whelmed with love and support since we launched this campaign in January. You guys are ridiculously awesome!

But one more thing first…

We started a Go Fund Me Page because I know some you are very familiar with the site and recommended we start one, so we did! We are launching it today and you can check out our page at:

http://www.gofundme.com/dejaandlucas. DON’T GO THERE YET, IT WILL RUIN THE SURPRISE!!!! This site will automatically update our total when you make a donation, so we encourage you to donate here! It's safe and secure, we did lots of research!

Okay, but seriously just one more thing…

You can always still make a PayPal donation at any time. It’s still up and running for you PayPal-ers out there!

Okay, one more thing…

JUST KIDDING.

Here! You! Go!

You guys are going to flip when you see how close we are getting...

 

 We now have...

700 puzzle pieces!

that means we have raised/saved...
$14,000!!!

AMAZING RIGHT!?!

Between your generosity and Lucas and I  saving like maniacs, we are so stinking close!!!

We are asking you today to please, please, please help us to get to our final goal, we are just $6,000 away!!! I know that seems like a lot to some but in January alone we raised over $3,000 so we can do this!

Even if you can donate just a tiny amount we would be enormously grateful! 

We are so excited at this point that we can hardly wait. Lucas has been coming to me with baby names and nursery ideas, it's adorable! We are so ready to add to our family and hope you can help us!

Even if you can't don't money, we can't tell you how much prayer, happy thoughts and kinds words of encouragement help through this enormous roller coaster ride!

Please also go check out our newly updated WALL OF FAME PAGE! You can also click right here to access that link!

LET'S DO THIS!!!!!!

 

I’m Keeping my Uterus!

Photo Credit: Flickr

(This post title makes me laugh…)

Remember my Hysterectomy post?

Well, here is a little update on that post…

I was scheduled to have a hysterectomy this month (August). I had a good long visit with my doctor after going back and forth and up and down and all over the place with my own thoughts on the whole surgery. Something with the whole idea of hysterectomy was not sitting well with me and I was restless and sleepless for a good couple of weeks.

I love my regular gynecologist here in St. George! He’s always been great but I haven’t seen him in over a year because I got switched over to my interfitlity doctor. Dr. L and I had a good long talk about everything, how I was feeling and his own thoughts and concerns. So here is the scoop.

Doctor L is concerned that if we were to do a hysterectomy there could always be complications, which could lead to him having to remove my ovaries. This would be a sad, sad day because I NEED my eggs to do this whole thing. He also expressed that I’m young and active and this would “take me out” for a good, long time. The risks out-weighed the benefits at the end of the day…

Instead of hysterectomy, I will undergo a couple of biopsies and then have a procedure down called the NovaSure ablation procedure. You can read about it right here at this link! It will help me to stop bleeding (FINALLY) and it’s less-invasive. The procedure, however, does take away any hope of ever getting pregnant on your own. Although this is something I already know about myself, it’s still a little tough putting that final nail in the coffin so-to-speak.

None-the-less, it’s time! I will have this procedure done in the next month (before I start back to school) so I will keep you all posted!

Side Note: One of the requirements for myself and my sister is that we have to get on the same cycle at the same time, using birth control pills. The problem is, birth control has not stopped my bleeding and I’ve been totally unable to get synced with my sister. This could be problematic as we begin the medical procedure to all this…this procedure could help as I would just need hormone injections to produce eggs. 

Enough about my uterus...sheesh!

Legally Confused

Image From: Flickr

It’s been far too long since I’ve updated everyone on how the puzzle campaign is going. That being said, I could list to you the millions of reasons, why but I won’t! Instead, I will fill you in piece by piece on how our journey is progressing. I had to break it into a few posts, because well…my OCD brain couldn’t handle it all in one.

As you may have guessed from my “oh-so-creative” post title, this one is about the legality of the whole thing (It’s actual more interesting than you would think…so keep reading…).

We are currently in the midst of legal stuff…lots, and lots, and lots, of legal STUFF! Our lawyer is wonderful and thank goodness because it’s an exhausting and confusing process!

In late July we met with him for this first time and instantly felt great about our decision to change lawyers (I won’t go into detail on this right now). We spent HOURS discussing all the protocol and legal things we were about to embark on! It was EXHAUSTING and our brains were FRIED after our meeting, Ambree and Lucas were there and were champs through the tedious, wordy mumble jumble. So here’s the scoop…

Our lawyer’s main job in this process is to draft a contract between myself, Lucas, Derek and Ambree (my sister and brother-in-law). We have been discussing this contract for months now because it is a MAJOR part of the process. The contract is a good thing to have to make sure all parties are taken care of and have their input.

It’s been an interesting process for sure. As parents, we have had to make some serious decisions about a child we don’t even have yet, probably much sooner than others may have to. We have to work through a lot of feelings on what lengths we will go to for our baby while at the same time making sure my sister is taken care of, safe, and is going to still be able to be a good mom to Gavin and Maycee while carrying our baby.

The contract is being written right now and should be completed in a week or two.

Now for the remainder of the legal stuff, my brain has had to process a lot so I hope this information is all accurate (this is my disclaimer that it may not be) but I’ll do my best.

Once we have a contract we will need to present it to a judge for approval. This is basically a “go ahead” to start the medical process. This will be a happy, glorious day for us that we are all looking forward to.

HOWEVER, because the state of Utah treats gestational carriers like adoption, we have to go through a very similar process. We are petitioning to get the home visit waved (because it’s about $1,000) extra. It’s normally waved in nearly all g.c. cases so we are crossing our fingers this will be same for us. We just submitted our fingerprints for FBI background checks and are collecting letters stating we will make good parents now!

Despite our frustration, and downright anger at times, that we have to go through all of this to have OUR OWN BABY, we are hanging in and doing what we need to do. HOWEVER, we have BIG plans down the road to push for many changes in this process. Some days the anger mounts, and mounts, and mounts but we move forward…

(I’m sure you will hear more ranting about this down the road, but this was my “nice way of saying it” for the time being.)

Our lawyer will also help with things once we have a live birth. As it stands today, when the baby is born, my sister and MY husband will be listed as the parents until we go to court for me to get custody of MY OWN baby. Yep, let that one sink in for a bit!

I think that was enough detail for the time being on the legal end of things. Again we love our lawyer and our very thankful he is working so hard on our case and taking as much stress off of us as he possibly can…what a relief!