thanks!

thanks for the comments! i may need to borrow some of liffey's border collie friends because bill does NOT make a good herding dog. :)

and i think i fixed the link to jenna's website on the right. i had an extra http or something in there. and for those of you who can read french, marie's blog is about her life as a rugby player's wife. she is a friend of mine from grad school #1 and was a bridesmaid in our wedding.

i thought i'd try to catch some of you up on what we have done in the past. today i thought i'd share our story on how we found our agency.

i started looking into adoption several years ago, way before IVF because i was NEVER going to do IVF. ever. ha. and ha again. i sent away for info from several local agencies and some in texas, at the recommendation of someone from the infertility support group i attended. i also learned through my local friends that, except for the governmental agencies, all of the local agencies here in town had a religious requirement. there is 1 new agency that does not - only one - but she is very new and trying to get her agency going. when i was looking at the application forms for the other local agencies, every single one was discriminatory. no non-christians, no homosexuals, etc etc. that excludes too many of my friends. i also was not going to write a 1 page essay on how jesus is my personal savior. i passed theology in college just fine, thank you. all the agencies also require a referral from your pastor. that would be great, except no one at our church knows who the heck we are because we're not "from" there.

i researched some larger, nationwide agencies too. i've always been a little nervous about big institutions - like, say, a state university. :) in the end, we decided to go with the same agency a friend used. while i was getting ready for our donor embryo cycle, a friend started her adoption paperwork with this agency and was very happy with them. it is here in our state, but not in the city. they have no religious requirement. they help the birthmother (BM) become self supportive so she can take better care of herself after the birth. they advertise nationwide along with in state. they also work with a facilitator in another state. our social worker said about 50% of the BM's come from in state and 50% are from out of state.

so now we wait. we may travel to the next county to meet a potential BM (PBM) or we may travel to another state. watch this space.....