Q&A

I've received a few common questions from readers and friends about our pregnancy, adoption process and other various things since we announced the news, so here is a Q&A for you:

Q: Now that you are pregnant, do you still plan to adopt?
A: Yes, we absolutely plan to adopt in the future. Our adoption agency requires that if a prospective adoptive family becomes pregnant, they go "inactive" until after the baby is born. Matt and I went inactive in early December when we found out that we were expecting and are currently reevaluating our adoption plans. Originally we chose our agency because they specialized in domestic infant adoptions (we wanted to start with a baby, not a toddler); now that we are having an infant, we think we might go the international route and adopt an older child. We're still praying about it though.

Q: Are you going to change the name of your blog?
A: No we plan to keep the name for a few reasons - we still plan to adopt, the name is our "brand" and I am too lazy to change it!

Q: A lot of people commented that your baby is "a miracle". Was it really a miracle?
A: I believe all babies are miracles. Anyone who has ever struggled to get pregnant, or been diagnosed with infertility understands how incredibly complex conception is! SO many things have to be in perfect order to get pregnant that it's any wonder we have so many people on the planet.

I think what people are really asking is: Did you get pregnant naturally? And the answer is - sort of.

Some background: right before we decided to move forward with adoption in March 2010, we had gone through years of fertility testing and treatments (restricted to ovulation inducing drugs), as well as a medical menopause after my laparoscopy. Needless to say, we were tired and hopeless - our insurance plan at the time didn't cover much for the more comprehensive infertility treatments like intrauterine insemination (IUI) or invitro fertilization (IVF) - and we didn't want to take the risk of paying so much out of pocket when the success rates for both procedures seemed to be low. Hence we started the adoption process.

In October 2011, after we lost the baby we thought we would adopt, Matt and I talked at length about what we wanted do next. We knew we wanted to continue with the adoption process, but we also talked about going back to a reproductive endocrinologist because my company changed insurance providers and the new plan covered almost everything in regards to infertility treatments. So on a whim, I asked my OB-GYN for a referral to a reproductive clinic that I had heard wonderful things about. Thankfully, they were able to see me in early November and my doctor asked that we try IUI since Matt and I had no known fertility issues (hence the diagnosis of "unexplained" infertility).

So it was natural in the fact that IUI is a minor medical intervention. But it was a miracle because it worked! Did you know that the success rates for IUI are only 5 - 20%!??

Q: What is your due date?
A: My nurse midwife says August 8, 2012. All the pregnancy websites say August 6, 2012.

Q: Do you want a boy or a girl?
A: I'll be happy with either - I just want a healthy baby!

Q: When will we get to see the nursery?
A: The nursery has been complete since September 2011. I want to wait to debut it until after we find out the sex of the baby - right now it's gender inclusive, but if it's a girl, I want to make a few tiny tweaks to make it more feminine.

Any other questions I can answer? Email us at matt and kara adopt [at] gmail [dot] com!