TGIF check-in!

BornReady

What is everyone up to this weekend? Anyone have to work? Doing something fun to forget about this whole situation? 

We had some work done on our house this week, so we will need to do some cleaning this weekend to get things back to normal. Also having some new furniture delivered today, so re-organizing and putting stuff into it's new home in our house. And finally, a dinner alone with my husband! My parents are the only ones who our child will tolerate for a nighttime date night, so we're heading to their house a couple hours away and going out to dinner.

As an add on...I've been thinking about fostering/foster to adopt and looking at the online profiles the last couple of days. I just feel this pull towards it, and always have. Anyone else ever looked into it?

catiecatp

I've got a cover letter or two to write this weekend - but other than that, not much planned. This week has been reading week at the university I teach so I've had the week off to try to get some application ducks in order, but things have taken longer than expected, as is often the case. 

I've never looked into fostering or fostering to adopt - but I sometimes think it would be fun to adopt a child and his/her sibling so they could remain together. 

FiancB

Re: foster care. One of my nephews is adopted that way. It worked out really well because his older sister ended up being adopted by a nearby family so they still get to see each other regularly. I would love to foster someday but I haven't been able to get H on board with fostering animals, let alone a kid...

My sister fostered a couple kids before this one. They went through classes and the first baby they were offered had very high medical needs so they turned that down, didn't really want to mess with that the first time around. I can't remember what happened to the other kids, maybe the bio parents got them back, but it was all pretty peaceful- no tearing the kid away for no apparent reason. They had this baby boy for a length of time before his mom lost custody and then they adopted him when he was about 2. He's 13 now, and I think his sister is a senior in high school. 

TBH I'm hoping to work in L&D or the nursery one day and if a kid needs a home I'll have a hard time not volunteering to take them. I've volunteered in the nursery before and took care of a baby born addicted to opioids and I wanted to steal it. There's definitely a need, and those kinds of problems resolve pretty quickly. And as a nurse I feel pretty qualified to take a baby that might have respiratory issues that need trach suctioning or whatever, like the one that my sister and most people would turn down.

Anyhoo. Check-in. I have a paper due in 7 hours that I haven't started yet. That's how I roll- I need to be under fire to get in the groove. And I'm 3 DPO and already a dirty, dirty symptom spotter and this TTC shit preoccupies my brain way too much.  Working Sunday and was asked to make my shift 13 hours- nope. I can do one shift or the other, not doing both. 

Daisydoodle86

@BornReady   Ooh new furniture and a date night,-fun! 

I've been on school vacation this week (I teach) and of course I've put all my prep and planning off, so I'll be doing that this weekend.

I've always wanted to do foster care/adoption through foster care but I always thought it would be much later in my life. I've been looking into it for the last month or two (trying to get hubby to look at it but he's nervous about it). I'm starting to feel like that's the direction we're heading, and I like having a plan. He's agreed that if we're still in this boat in 6 months, we can meet with someone to get started.

I understand the pull towards it

mylittleversailles

Oh boy, it's (almost) the weekend!   It's supposed to be very mild weather-wise, but I'm physically still not up for much. If I'm moving around for more than a little while, my lower abdomen gets painfully bloated. The nurse said that's all right and it will subside, but I'd sure love to be able to do something/anything besides playing The Sims and reading in bed.

My husband and I bake complicated breads and patisserie as a hobby, so we might take on a new recipe Saturday. I was thinking of trying to veganize a meyer lemon chiffon cake - with this new-fangled egg white technique. Meyer lemons are only in season for a couple more weeks and I've been sick for the majority of my opportunity to work with them.

Sunday, we're having two friends over for dinner. It's my big debut, as I haven't cooked a thing (and that is MY thing) since December 10th. I'm doing a pan-Asian meal, as I really wanted to make some Kung Pao cauliflower and I'll build the rest around that, maybe some gai lan and green onion cakes, too. I hope I can manage the work, not that either of them would mind if I can't. DH lacks confidence in the kitchen, but he's pretty good at following my instructions and could surely take over.

@BornReady I have looked into fostering/fostering to adopt. My best friend plans on doing so in a few years, as he's gay, will more than likely remain single and has always wanted to go this route to parenthood. DH and I have talked about the possibility of doing so when we're a bit older and more established. There are a lot of fears that I have surrounding this, but nothing we couldn't work out together in the hope of making a difference and alleviating just a little suffering. Atm, there's a HUGE issue in Ontario, as they botched drug tests, took away kids who shouldn't have been taken away and now all adoptions are on hold - indefinitely. I don't think I could handle that in my life right now, but I do think later I could be prepared for that. 

Does anyone have any book recommendations on positive adoption stories or preparing to foster? 

beff12

DH is a pastor so he was busy all of Valentine's Day. We're making up for it this afternoon and having a shopping and dinner date! I can't wait! We're going to hit up craft stores and Sam's. AF came this morning so I'm so grateful for the time with him and the distraction. 

@BornReady, we definitely are planning on fostering to adopt! The goal is to be ready to adopt by our 10th wedding anniversary, so 2022 hopefully. My brother and SIL have finished the certification process and will be getting their first foster children at some point this year. I'm excited for them! They've shared with us a lot that they've learned and I'm sure we'll be glad for their experience by the time we get there. Adoption is such a great need here and we definitely feel the pull towards it, too. Before we even started dating we each knew that we wanted to adopt so it worked out pretty perfectly!

cjs260

@BornReady DH and I have alway said that we wanted to foster to adopt later in life. I think it's an absolutely wonderful idea. 

I have a multitude of things going on this today and this weekend. First off 11 DPO here and I'm going absolutely BSC - I have spent an egregious amount of thought processes symptom spotting and I need it to stop. I could pretend that I won't poas everyday until AF comes, but I would just be lying to myself. Also, today a new co-worker wants to take us all out to meet his wife, who is pregnant and her due date the same month as mine was - no thank you. I am not going to torture myself like that just to be nice to a stranger. (One thing I have learned is that sometimes you have to be selfish). Tomorrow I will be doing a little work, but nothing too crazy. Finally, my husband and I share a birthday, next Thursday, and since he is turning 30 and we never get "special" birthdays since we have to share, I'm going to throw him a surprise party next weekend! So I'm going to throw myself into making that awesome! 

roper2617

This weekend I am hoping to be able to sleep in, although it's likely I won't because I never do! Lol

I wish I was doing something to take my mind off this whole situation this weekend but I'm actually doing the opposite. Sunday is my cousins baby shower, and it's going to sting not only because it's her baby shower, but we were 6 weeks apart. I was so excited that our babies would be close in age, just like her and I are. 

Re: fostering. I think it's so awesome that people consider fostering or are foster parents. I know that in my small community there are not enough foster parents! It is something the DH and I have talked about loosely but are still very ambivalent, as there is so much to consider. 

musicinmysoul17

DH has to work this weekend which means he sleeps all day. So I'll just be chilling or doing stuff at home, maybe hang out with a friend for some distraction.

Knottie12904461

Good news bad news on my front. Hcg finally down to zero but discovered I have *extreme* hyperthyroidism-on paper only. No symptoms. I order these labs all the time and never seen levels like these before-and on myself! My boss (an internal med doc) is concerned for some low level autoimmune dz which may have caused the MC. I promised DH last night I wouldn't beat myself up over this-thinking that I may have done it to myself. I'm flying to Spokane, WA this afternoon to work for the weekend so it will be a great distraction. 

cjs260

Knottie12904461 said:

Good news bad news on my front. Hcg finally down to zero but discovered I have *extreme* hyperthyroidism-on paper only. No symptoms. I order these labs all the time and never seen levels like these before-and on myself! My boss (an internal med doc) is concerned for some low level autoimmune dz which may have caused the MC. I promised DH last night I wouldn't beat myself up over this-thinking that I may have done it to myself. I'm flying to Spokane, WA this afternoon to work for the weekend so it will be a great distraction. 

Even if you have an autoimmune disease, YOU did not cause your loss. Don't be hard on yourself, life has done enough of that already. I am so sorry you're having to go through this. 

AL_TwinCities

@reneeannemm that is crazy what is going on in Ontario! I hope someone lost their job over that. Taking kids away from their parents when they shouldn't have been is some messed up stuff.

We are heading out soon to my work holiday party and then tomorrow I am having brunch with some other ladies from TB in my area, and DH and I are picking up wood flooring from my coworker that we are buying from him. We are going to talk to a friend to see if they can install it for us (not really something we want to DIY).

m6agua

RE: Foster Care
I have never thought about it for children but I have thought about fostering a dog or cat. It is something I just started thinking about doing recently. I don't know if I would be the right fit for that type of situation though.

I don't have much going on this weekend. H has off on Sunday so we will get to spend some time together so thats a plus.

BornReady

@reneeannemm Your dinner sounds amazing! You must be a very good person to know for dinner parties. I had some spicy charred cauliflower out the other night and it was amazing. I'll never see cauliflower the same way again. 

mylittleversailles

@BornReady Thank you!! Dinner parties are definitely our thing. I love the prep and time management involved. Previously, we'd have friends for dinner once or twice a week and keep the big ones for special occasions. I like trying out new centrepieces or ways to display the food. DH and I are both extremely domestic so this our way of socializing. We did a big Thanksgiving outside on our deck this year and then had an early Christmas for all our friends.

Cauliflower is a super neat ingredient. It can be a plain vegetable easily enough, but that's not really fun. Blend it or fry it and you have something really awesome on your hands! To keep it simple, we usually just roast it and then I smother it in tahini (for me; DH is allergic to sesame).

mylittleversailles

Made my cake! I'm totally out of practice, have little to no energy and even less motivation, but I set this goal and accomplished it. I hope everyone's weekend is going well! 

cjs260

@reneeannemm What a beautiful cake!!! And I LURVE that cake stand! 

BornReady

@reneeannemm Umm, that cake is amazing! You have further cemented my admiration for your cooking skills. Maybe you could have a weekly thread where we could virtually attend your dinner parties?!?!  

mylittleversailles

@cjs260 Thanks! I'm not especially good with cake decorating, I'm just very patient and know a couple tricks for composing photos. I lurvvvvveeeee it, too. It matches my teapot; completely by accident! 

@BornReady You're always invited to my dinner parties, virtually or not! I do have a blog and it's vaguely successful but I don't work too hard on it anymore. I even get to be a cartoon character thanks to a very generous artist friend over in the UK. We're doing some security maintenance on it right now, but here's a link to its Facebook page, as the actual site is up and down this morning. 

Knottie12904461

@cjs260 Thanks so much...I appreciate it. My work trip was awesome and I'm feeling better about rechecking it in 2 weeks. Maybe lab error?
@reneeannemm that's so pretty!!!