Chicken or The Egg?

IP's (Intended Parents) Check "Resources" tab for links relating to this post.

This has been one crazy week. We are going to be moving next weekend, and FORTUNATELY I will get almost a week to clean. But at the moment, I am trying to get rid of as much stuff as can. We have a huge walk-in closet in the playroom, and I am getting it close to half full! Everything that is packed, I am putting in the outside storage, so I can not see it, and won't try to re-pack it! Lol. You have no idea how crazy I am with that kind of stuff.

The majority of this week, I have been doing research (with the help of our wonderful pod!). We have both been looking for the best way to handle the legal process. Apparently California is a "surrogate friendly state" but they have some very specific laws that have to be followed in order to make sure the baby is ours after birth, and to make it so Brian and My names are on the birth certificate. So... searching for a good ~cheapish...;-) lol~ lawyer.

OK.... so we have chosen the fertility clinic and had our first consult. Buuuttt.... now we are trying to find the best way to finance all of this. These are the options that I am finding:

Grants- There are many groups that do grants for IVF.

 The ones that I can find are for specific health/fertility issues. Can't find anything for liver disease, or simply unable to carry a baby full term. Some I have found just do not fit in the time frame we have to work with. If we got the application in on time (some of the dates have already passed for 2013 grants), we would not find out till Fall...ish if we received the grant. Then, the money is not released to the clinic until January of 2013 and we would have to have used the money by the end of 2013. With Brian leaving for about 8 months around the beginning of 2013, it would be pushing it, and possibly losing our opportunity (and surrogate?) :-) If we even could wait, there is too much that could happen in within both our families in another year and a half that could take our baby away.... wow! I am going to try not to write "could" again tonight! Lol.

Loans- Filled out as many medical loan applications as I can find. Praying for some good news to come early next week.

Many people are helping me with some fundraisers. I am excited to plan a few events.

CUT, CUT, CUT!!! Starting fresh with a new budget! Analyzing every part. Already, the move will help quite a bit. 

Finally, some clinics do a Donor Oocyte (egg) Program. This is where they decrease some of the cost by matching you with someone who needs eggs. So they just do the same as you would a normal IVF harvesting but then you would split the number of eggs that you have produced in that cycle, which would effect (affect? I can never remember) the odds of success.... I would guess. But I guess that would also depend on the number of eggs harvested, because we are only going to do 1-2 eggs.... hmmm.... Something to think about.... This may also require us to start before planned.

So we have to get some plans in order so that we can know what clinic we can work with, but we have to wait for word back from a clinic to know if the Donor Oocyte Program is possible for me. Thus... Chicken or the egg (haha...egg) :-) 

Ok... That is what I have been doing this week. I will put some of the links on the "Resources" page for others that are playing the link game....Click here, gives you 2 more options...Click on one of those, but you have to open both so you can compare... oh! yay! more links to click on!!!... Before you know it you have 40 tabs open (no...sadly I am not exaggerating). Thank goodness for Firefox's ability to group tabs! 

I hope this is able to help someone that is looking for all the options that are out there. Aaaannndd.... if you have any recommendations, let me know. :-) 

The video below is so perfect right now. AND it has butterflies in every picture! I know it was there just for me to see and listen to so I can remember to continue searching, but know that what is meant to be will happen. He will make a way.