The problem is, Brandon and I don't exactly have many friends, nor do we attend church (I'm Christian but Brandon is atheist. We'll talk about that topic another day). We're military, we make friends where we are and when we move we keep in touch with some but not all of our friends, and even then it's mostly through Face.book. Besides, it's hard to maintain a friendship in the military. By the time you make your way back to one duty station or coast, your friends have moved on to another one, and so on and so forth. And for the purposes of the application, we can only use people we've known for 2 years or more. So this eliminates all the friends (two) I've made here in Connecticut as well as my IVF friends. This only leaves my old Washington friends who I haven't seen in over a year, or my old high school friends who have never met Brandon.
Sometimes I find that adoption isn't exactly military-friendly. Or maybe I'm just a crappy friend that needs to keep in touch more.
On a crappier note, Brandon and I haven't been sticking to our budget so now we need to really put our nose to the grind when it comes to budgeting if we expect to adopt. This upcoming trip to Orlando was really the cause of all the over-spending, but then again, you only turn 30 once! And it will give me a chance to get some more current pictures of my family to use in our adoption profile. But from now on, no more spending money we should be saving for adoption!
On a more positive note, our APQ has been received by the agency and now we've been assigned an adoption specialist! We have to schedule a phone meeting to go over our paperwork and stuff so Brandon and I need to find a time that works for both our schedules. I'm getting very excited!!
Oh, yea, and about the FET. Got the schedule for that. Transfer is August 29th. Yay.
Yay for some progress, ie getting an adoption specialist and FET schedule! And hopefully you are able to figure out some people to write to a kick ass reference. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteYou will think of someone... good luck!
ReplyDeleteSounds like despite hitting a little bit of a rough patch other things are going in the right direction :) Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteYay for progress on the adoption front! Those milestones of paperwork getting completed are huge!!
ReplyDeleteYou'll find references. We had a really tough time picking who our top four were going to be.
Hang in there... ;)
I found your blog through another blog, and I love it. We are Air Force and the reality is starting to set in that we are going to have to try IVF, and then possibly start looking into adoption. Thank you for sharing your journey - I don't know much about all of this so you are an amazing resource and a source of hope for me that windows really do open when doors close. Newest follower!
ReplyDeleteThat was hard for us as well. We had to have 3 friends, a pastor and a family member all write letters. The friends had to know us for at least 3 years... all the friends that knew us that long were at our last duty station, and hadn't seen us for 18 months (at the time). We were able to get letters from friends in Michigan, Maryland, and Florida, my parents in New Mexico, and our Pastor in Missouri. The agency commented how spread out they all were... obviously never dealt with a military family! :)
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog. My hubby is also Navy. We were stationed in Groton the last couple years but now are in Portsmouth, NH.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in hearing about your experience with IVF/IUI and Tricare. :)