New Things

I started my job. I have three weeks of intensive training which is going well. I have played with our product a bit, so I know a little bit how it works so today the training was a little slow. I did learn a few things, but I'm ready for the pace to pick up a little. But I like the people and I like the atmosphere, so things after the end of day 2 are going pretty well.

I also spoke with my RE. Basically, all my tests came out normal. The miscarriage with donor sperm was a fluke. I think I kind of figured that was the case, but there it is. There aren't any female factor issues in this miscarriage thing. They did find that I have a mutation that means I don't absorb folic acid properly, so I will need to start taking a mega dose of it. It does increase the chances of birth defects, I guess, especially since I'm 35. But otherwise, things are normal.

So I guess I'm cycling again in March. We are going to do a micro-dose Lupr0n IUI. I am both a little excited and dreading it. I am starting the pill again on Friday, and in a couple of weeks I will be injecting again. I guess I'll just have to work something out with my new job. I'm still worried about that, but it is what it is. This is my priority right now.

And there's something else that's bothering me. My new company offers a pre-tax account for adoption (like an FSA for health costs) where you can put in a bunch of money that you are going to use for an adoption. But the thing is, you have to use all of that money within that calendar year, or you lose it. I have to decide how much to put in the account within 30 days of hire. And the thing with domestic adoption is, unless you are working with a flat fee agency, the fee schedule is kind of unpredictable. And we don't even know if we are going to go forward with it at this point -- we still have these treatments. So we don't know if we can utilize this benefit. Being pre-tax is a big savings, especially when you're talking about the large amount of money involved with adoption, but I'm not sure we are going to be able to take advantage of it due to all the uncertainty involved in our situation (and all adoption situations, really). The HR woman announced to the entire new hire class that no one has ever used that benefit. There are now over 300 people in the company. That felt -- I don't know -- it sort of made me feel a little bit like a freak. And on the life insurance form it asked if any of my listed children had been adopted. And I notice these things now because maybe some day I will have to check that box. Why would they want to know that? I'm not sure if the company even realizes the difficulty of using that adoption benefit. I may go talk to the HR woman privately about it, but I'm not sure. It just kind of felt a little bit crappy.

So that's it for now. The house is still wonderfully clean. I've been cleaning the kitchen before going to bed. Trash won't be collected until Saturday morning, so things won't be perfect until this weekend as we have a lot of recycling to bring out and nowhere to put it, but it feels pretty freeing to de-clutter. I recommend it if you can get to it.