Strep throat, UVU, and BM explosion

The BM explosion got you to read this didn't it?

You sicko, you.

Well sorry to disappoint, but in my world BM stands for Birth Mother. These last 2 weeks or so, I have had almost as many birth mothers assigned to my caseload as I have had the whole rest of the year. All the other caseworkers are swamped too. It's crazy! And a bunch of my couples are getting some action too (meaning their files are being pulled and looked at, or they are being emailed by birth parents who are looking to find adoptive families). Over half of my approved couples have something going on right now with their files. For sure most of these little "leads" don't pan out. But it keeps me incredibly busy in the meantime with that many anxious couples all needing support all at once/ that many face to faces to arrange/ that many out of state caseworkers to contact to confirm the actual existence of a promising birth parent. It's good to be busy...it has felt like a slow year. And I can feel the excitement emanating off of my couples, and even while I try to prepare them for probable disappointment, it's hard not to really get excited about the "what ifs" right along with them. Like "what if 8 of my couples went on firm hold all at the same time?"

I'll tell you what if: That would be awesome.

Anyway, I was inspired by one of my fellow coworkers to put my clients' profiles linked to my blog. Why not advocate for them in one more way if I can? So please, check out my newest feature. And if you see a couple you feel would be a good fit for a birth mother in your life, please show her the profile. Not all of my couples are up currently. A good number are on hold, so I couldn't link them currently. But as they return into the pool, or as new couples are approved, I'll add the link to their IAL profiles right there on the right of the page.

Also this week, I got my husband his college degree. How? you ask? Well, by looking at his credit earned vs. credits needed and recognizing that he had finished his degree. And then calling around to the various counselors/professors needed to approve the needed substitutions and petitions. We had thought that after taking a year off to focus on work, that this would be a good time to go back to finish that whole fire science degree. Little did we know until this last week that he had actually been done since January of 2008. (insert grimace....) So Marshall is a happy man that his degree will come in the mail in January (though 2 years late) without having to step foot in a classroom again.

This is one of those times that I think he should kiss the ground I walk on.

And now for the strep throat:

I had strep throat. It almost killed me. I felt so horrible I thought I was going to die. Horrible. 103+ temperature for over 24 hours straight with no relief. Tylenol couldn't touch it.

Come to find out, 3 days into my antibiotic treatment, that I was given a half dose size of the pills. I had been taking "one pill in the morning and one at night," as per the doctor's orders, while I should have been taking 2. And in the midst of my fevered delirium on Friday, I had even called to double check why I wasn't getting better. They said a nurse would call me to determine if I should come back in, and then no one ever called. When I called today, they told me there was no record of my phone call on Friday. I may have been fevered delirious, but I don't think I was that delirious to imagine a phone call.

Don't worry, I feel much better now!

So that was us this week in a nutshell.