Kathleen's Adventures

Step-by-Step Guide to Changing your Name Post-Marriage Step 1 - Social Security Print out and complete form SS-5 for a name change. Take this form and an approved form of identification (my Texas drivers license was sufficient) and name change (marriage license) to your local social security office.  Check if any are taking appointments.  At this time, those in the Austin-area are not.  I drove by the North location at 8:05am on a Friday.  They open at 9am.  There were ~55 people in line already.  I just kept driving. A friend had been there the week before and it took her six hours.  No thank you.  A bit later in the morning, I tried the Oak Hill location and was relieved to see there were only nine people lined up outside.  It took me 1:45 total there to get in and get out.  An hour of that was inside.  The outside wait at Oak Hill is on a shaded sidewalk - far better than the North location that provided little to no shade....

My mind has been racing since yesterday afternoon (well, let's get real - it has been racing for almost two years when it comes to building our family) when I watched a video an old childhood friend sent me.  It was of him sharing his and his wife's story of trying to build their family with his church congregation several months ago.  He said he had been following our story and hesitated to send the video but finally felt that he should share.  He just said "fast forward to 1:28 in the video."  I had no idea what I was about to watch - I did not expect it to be him speaking, and certainly did not expect it to be sharing their story of a years-long struggle for a baby.  Tears streamed down my face (common theme these days) as I listened.  It is funny, I think his is the first story I have heard in a while of a friend going through this.  I have plenty of internet and new friends I have met in the "worst club with the best members" and I want nothing mo...

Written February 18 - Day 1 Post Transfer We have kept this under wraps as best as we could.  We wanted to be able to still have some element of surprise of a pregnancy announcement for our family and close friends.  When you share a transfer date, you are also sharing that pregnancy test results can be expected in ~9 days. It is a hard balance for me to maintain.  Sharing our journey has been so incredibly cathartic.  I also firmly believe in sharing to lessen the stigma, or the silence that surrounds infertility.  I want to encourage those new to the journey.  I want to educate those who are new or those who will never have to face this themselves.  I have said it before and I will say it again.  Navigating infertility sucks.  Really bad.  Also, when there is grief involved, I have a very hard time going about my life acting as if nothing is wrong.  If you were diagnosed with cancer or lost a dear loved one, you would not be expec...

Many of you knew I froze two rounds of eggs ~4.5 years ago.  A lot has happened since then.  First, a few parts not directly related to those eggs: I met Danny in late July 2018 We got married in May (and September!) 2020 I refused to consider trying to get pregnant until about two weeks before our September wedding...that damn dress had to fit I turned 40...during covid...on Valentines...during an epic winter storm in which everyone was stuck at home for over a week We had two failed IUIs and one failed medicated cycle - the first IUI being on the first snow day in January.  I was certain that was good luck as we slid out of our driveway to get to the dr office.  Now, about those eggs: While we were off snow skiing in March, my first batch of eggs was fertilized.  If you recall, I froze two rounds - the first was 16 eggs and the second was 19 eggs.  Initially, it sounded a bit overkill to even fertilize the whole first batch, but I felt like it was the wa...

I was recently asked to be a speaker at one of my church's Wednesday Lenten services.  Below is the sermon I gave. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A few years ago, Margot Perez-Greene asked if I would speak about my faith journey at one of these Lenten services.  I told her at the time that I had not gotten there yet – as in I was still on the journey (or perhaps I hadn’t even really started).  She said that was exactly the point but I still felt I just did not have that much to share. Here I am few years later still very much at what feels like the beginning of this journey of faith, yet wanting to acknowledge a notable leg of this lifelong voyage. It’s funny – I had a feeling a second ask to speak at a Lenten service was coming, and I couldn’t say “no” this time. I grew up at First United Methodist Church in Beaumont and have fond memories of my time there.   When I moved here for college, my church-g...