street cred.

so we have actually started the process, apart from looking things up on the internet. although that is a vital part of the process of doing anything these days. but the next thing we did was fill out some forms for a fertility clinic we found in buenos aires, and thus subsequently had a phone conversation with one of their representatives.

this was highly interesting. first of all, their forms were your typical, "your info/partner's info" complete with lots and lots of questions about sperm and scrotum and the like. so, we just deleted that section, and sent the girly section twice. the lovely woman assigned to us (whose name is nadia) called us a few hours later. she seemed not in the least bit fazed about us being two chicks. granted, buenos aires is fairly liberal among its latin american peers, but there is still a fair amount of discrimination. i won't suggest that it behooves fertility clinics to be non-discriminatory so they can get the big bucks from anyone and everyone, but it does appear that some of these clinics have figured this out already.

anyhow, esther and nadia had a nice lovely talk about everything, ending up with her promise to work up a detailed list of procedures, prices, etc. (i have a dream that everything will be much cheaper here because we're in latin america, but i'm sure that'll get dashed at some point.) the doctor is actually on vacation now until march 18th (it's high summer vacationing time here), at which point we will be re-contacted, possibly go in for a consultation, etc. we're still shopping around and what have you, but it feels nice to have been taken seriously by at least one fertility professional. like, we're actually taking first steps or something. crazy.

she said that from our profiles, we sound perfectly healthy and good to go (this is her pre-any-testing opinion) and that the total fee will probably be somewhere around $7000 smackers (likely less than in the states, but still a scary number for us). also, although i was hoping that there would be some medical reason that would suggest one of us being much more suited to donate eggs or give birth, it appears that there isn't one, so far. looks like we're still on the hook for making that decision.

regarding cost: my grandmother gave me a savings bond several years ago for $10,000, which i always (in my single days) said i would be saving for either grad school or adoption. so if we were to spend it all in one chunk on making a baby, theoretically, i should feel fine with this. there are a few issues, such as it (the bond) not actually being mature for a few more years, and the fact that once you spend it, it's gone--and then how do you FEED the little animal?? and of course i'm leaving out the strong possibility of having to do IVF way more than once. i know i need to be ridiculously grateful that we have this at all, but i'm still jealous of the blogs i've read of two-mom households, where both moms are making US wages. although that's still not quite enough for them, either...nutshell: if you're the praying type, pray for esther to get a job and/or me to get a promotion. it's sort of something we're using as a benchmark for whether or not to go ahead with this. i apparently have faith that it's going to happen (i've created a BLOG, for goodness's sake!), but our present income of $500 bucks a month isn't going to cut it to raise a family, even in buenos aires.

enough about money for now. promise!