The Parris Fam

Its been almost 7 months since our last post. If any of you are still following us... thanks for hanging around and sorry we are so far behind.

So, what have we been up to the last 7 months??? Here's what you've missed:

Its been wedding central this summer. Over the last 5 months we've had 7 weddings. Thats right. SEVEN. Between the showers, parties, and ceremonies we've been on the road quite a bit which explains why we are so far behind on this blogging thing.

On top of the Months-O-Weddings, Project Baby Parris has had some major developments. I don't think its much of a secret that we've been hoping for a child or the troubles we've had along the way but the process is one we've been asked a lot of questions about. Its not your "conventual" way by far so even the local doctors & nurses are intrigued.

Here are the basics: the only chance Jonathan & I have to conceive through Invitro Fertilization (IVF) however the cost aspect is about $20K and is not guaranteed to work. We have elected to move forward with IVF with a clinic in New Jersey who offers a unique "financial assistance program". Through the program, we will donate 1/2 of our eggs to another hopeful mother who can not produce her own. In return, she pays for a majority of our costs.

IVF is a process where they remove the eggs and fertilize them in a lab where they can be cultivated. The then embryos are then implanted. Only 1-2 embryos are implanted at one time. Any remaining embryos that we have will be frozen for future use incase the first pregnancy doesn't take or we could use them to have a second child later on.

Now this is where the questions always start. The child we carry will be completely genetically ours. I will provide the eggs and Jonathan will fertilize them it will just happen outside the body. We will not know anything about the other mother - we are waiving all rights to the eggs and will never know what happens with them.

Success rates are a couple years behind but also depend on the carrier, age, etc. The chances of multiples do increase slightly but not dramatically.

I started on meds last week to prepare my body and have regular blood work and ultrasounds to make sure my body is reacting correctly. I started additional injections today but haven't noticed any major side effects thus far. Although the clinic is in NJ, I'm able to go to my regular doctor for monitoring throughout the cycle and will only go up there for the week of retrieval. As of right now, we are expected to go up there the last week of this month - but that can change based on how I react to the meds.

Even if everything goes as planned and we complete the IVF the risks of any normal pregnancy still apply. We will NOT be able to select the sex before the implantation - or would we want to.

I think that's most of the answers to the questions we usually get but if you have others feel free to ask.

Jonathan and I ask that you keep us in your prayers throughout this process. Although we are very hopeful for its success, we do not consider this our only option to have a child. Adoption is something we have strongly considered and still may elect to do later on.



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