NEWS...

We did not plan on making this announcement so early, but word got out at my job and all of our friends and family know and quite frankly I am about to bust: We are pregnant :) We are seven weeks and due on May 3, 2009. The IVF worked, thank God, on the first try. I say thank God for two reasons: First, because it truly is thanks to God for this blessing, and second because as anyone who has been through IVF knows - it is not fun!

We had 19 eggs retrieved. Out of those...eleven actually fertilized. Five of them made it to Day 5 post-fertilization, 2 were transferred and 3 are now frozen. One miracle implanted! We heard the baby's heartbeat on Wednesday and it was surreal!

So far I feel good. No morning sickness...only some nausea if I wait too long to eat. I MUST have something every two hours or I feel crappy so I keep a lot of fresh fruit, fruit cups, crackers, etc. with me. My earliest symptoms were just heaviness in my breasts, itchy nipples (I thought that one was weird, but someone else said she had that one too!) and a strong urine smell. After the embryos were transferred I had two nights of MAJOR night sweats, but have not had them since. I had some pretty bad headaches that first week as well, but that could simply be due to the Progesterone injections (which we stop in two weeks ~ finally!)

Regarding Stephen and his brother (and the Kazak Embassy): If you adopted from Kaz and you only want to hear nice things about the country, please stop reading at this point. Joe and I feel nothing but disgust for all of the people in Kazakhstan that we dealt with throughout our adoption (with the caregivers and our drivers being the only exceptions.) The people we have dealt with have been apathetic and downright cruel. We resent that they asked us to meet with them in July and tore open the scab that was forming over our hearts by telling us the boys are available and that they were going to do "everything possible" to help us adopt them. I nearly cancelled our IVF procedure and thank God that in the end we did not.

Almat (Head of the Consular Section), as you saw from the e-mails I posted, barely answered our questions and recently his help - that was supposed to be "everything possible" - in reality - turned into giving us a contact person who could help us with the adoption. We did not need a contact person - we needed a swift acting Embassy official to insure our safety and complete this adoption a.s.a.p. so these boys could have a chance at life. Sadly, the Embassy had no intention of offering any "substantial" assistance and only proved my first assumption correct: It was all just lip service. Now, they can say "We met with the De Lorenzo's and offered assistance." They can use this quote to answer any reporters who question why they did not step up to the plate. Every single one of the people we dealt with, who had it within their power to help and didn't, make us sick to our stomachs.

Some people say "Oh, you can only blame Orson Mozes and his wife who is the co-owner and Executive Director and nobody else." Orson and Christen are, of course, the only reason we were in this mess to begin with. However, there are many who could have, and should have, helped to make things right once it was apparent that Orson was working with corrupt people on the Kazak end. It is outrageous that Nigmat is still abusing people and that Dr. Natalia, the Director of the Baby House - as well as Almagul are all still going about their evil business while the Embassy is FULLY AWARE of what they are doing! It is shameful. Lastly, I think it needs to be made very CLEAR to PAPs that Heritage Adoptions is using Nigmat. I am sure other agencies are as well, but Heritage is the one I know for sure is using him. BE VERY WEARY!