Wishing4One

The results are in...

2009-11-10T15:02:00.001+02:00

Here are the results of my immune testing. I have not yet talked to Dr. K about them. I plan to contact him with the results before I travel in case he wants me to start any treatment while travelling.

Here goes...

1. Anti Nuclear Antibodies (ANA)- POSITIVE (Nucleolar)

2. Antithyroid Antibodies
Antithyroglobulin- NEGATIVE
Antimicrosomal- NEGATIVE

3. Anti-Cardiolipin Antibodies (IgM)- 4.4 MLU/ml

4. IgA Level (serum)- 237.7 mg/dl

5. IgE Level (total)- 18.8 IU/ml

6. IgG Level (serum)- 1173.1 mg/dl

7. Anti-Cardiolipin Antibodies (IgG)- 39.2 GLU/ml

8. IgM Level (serum)- 273.4 mg/dl

9. Immunophenotyping CD56- 14.7%

By my quick observation all seem okay with the exceptions of :

number 1-ANA being positive
number 7- Anti-Cardiolipin Antibodies IgG is high
number 8- IgM level seems to be a bit on the high side

All this according to the reference range this lab lists.

Those of you who have had experience with immune testing/treatment any comments?

I guarantee this never happened to you

2009-11-06T11:57:00.000+02:00

Went and gave blood for immune tests. Results in Tuesday.

Here everything is bargainable. Not just in the souk (outdoor) type shopping, even in malls, in some stores, you ask "is there a discount?" and they discount the price.

Well I was totally joking when I asked the lab guy "is there a discount" and sure enough he discounted the total price by like 100 Egyptian pounds!

Super S was with me and he could not believe it, we could not believe it!!!

God Bless Cairo man, I swear.

Mommies and Stuffed Cabbage

2009-11-03T06:37:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was a fun day here in Cairo. The weather is feeling more like Fall, still low 80's and sun in the daytime and getting down to like 50 at night, perfect huh, I know.

So Monday started out with lunch with two of Super S's sisters and his aunt. They made mashy crump (cigar sized stuffed cabbage leaves) something I don't make too often (cause its a pain in the.... i mean really a long process) and his aunt makes them amazing so whenever anyone is making this we always get invited cause they know Super S loves it!

Then we all went to one of Super S's nieces house. She is leaving the country in a few days, so everyone was there to visit. The sweetest girl, I just love her! She's like 34 I think and has a 2-1/2 year old daughter.

But can I just say that it was like, um i don't know what to call it, but picture a roomful of 21-30 year old ladies and their babies. Their babies. Lots of cute little babies and toddlers.

I was fine, happy actually, cause I love em all- but that little bit of self pity tried to creep in as it always does. I swear I try to keep that shit in check, but its hard.

Then another one of his nieces, one of my favorites, said she dreamt of me, for the second time. At first she didn't want to tell me what she dreamt, she just kept saying "kheyr inshallah." (like, good blessings God Willing) Then why did you mention it? She told me. She dreamt twice that I had a baby and in her dream our little girl was 3 months old. Everyone was so happy and our daughter was beautiful. Thanks. Thanks alot.

Also a few weeks back a friend of mine from back home who lives on this side of the world too, sent me an amazing email, she too dreamt of me with a baby. And her dreams have proved to come true on more than one occassion. Again, thank you very much.

But you know what, yesterday as with a few weeks back I felt hope. I don't usually give much credence to dreams actually, but they made me feel happy and feel even more hope for some reason.

Everyone in Super S's family knows, obviously after our 13 years of marriage, and no baby that there is a "problem". They do not know details, but know we have an "issue." One of his Super S's brothers actually had their first child after 12 years of marriage, something they always bring up to make me feel better.

I laugh to myself when I try to explain IVF to a few of the nieces I am kind of close with, cause we are so close in age and my Arabic does not allow me to communicate what I want to say. They speak English, some better than others, but even talking about IVF with English speaking people who don't know much about it could sound like a foreign language huh?

Then I think of my Mom and my Dad who both know what we are going through, but of course they don't fully understand the IVF process. And why should they? To me its enough that they know we are trying and I don't want to get technical about it. I just hope one day I am able to tell them the end result of a successful IVF cycle.

Man do I hope. You know what guys, I am thinking 2010 is IT for us. IT meaning our babies will arrive. How cool would that finally be?

Gotta stay positive and optimistic, which is not always easy, but I am trying so hard to. Some days are better than others, and don't think my outlook is always this way, cause its not. Wish it could be, but as most of you know its not happening. After so much failure and heartache though I ~~want~~ need some good news.

So take a minute today wherever you are and think 2010 will be a great fresh start for all us. And for those us trying to get pregnant, we will. Ok? Ok.

Just spreadin some love

2009-11-02T14:42:00.000+02:00

All we need is a little LOVE! This award is about sisters uniting together and giving others some love because life is hard and who couldn't use a little love? The rules for this award is simple.  I LOVE YOU = 8 letters which gives you 8 rules :) 

Here are the rules: 

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award and write a little bit about why you love them.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog. 

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award. 

4. Nominate no more than 17 people (why 17, not sure?) who you love or you think could use some love. 

5. Write one word (you can only use a word once) about what you love about their blog.

6. You cannot nominate someone who has already been nominated-the love has to spread to all. 

7. Post links to the blogs you nominate. 

8. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they’ve been nominated.

So my thanks goes to Circus Princess at Circus Children. She is a ring leader indeed. She is currently in her 2ww and is experiencing some spotting, which we hope is implantation bleeding, so go show her some circus love.

I love her blog, because despite her struggles she always writes with a sense of humor, circus humor that is. Her posts make you think, laugh and smile all at the same time. Thanks again Circus Princess, and I love that you think I am so exotic, LOL!

I nominate all of you wonderful ladies and a few guys in that blog roll to the right, so if you accept, consider yourself nominated. For lack of time and space, I single out the following:

1. Are you kidding me? HILARIOUS
2. Murgdan at Conceive This! PREGNANT
3. Kristin at Dragondreamer's Lair HELPFUL
4. Kelli at No Lingerie Here... SWEET
5. Flying Monkeys at One Eye Open and Dreaming... REAL

Fertility Decision Making Survey

2009-10-31T23:51:00.002+02:00

I just completed this survey. It is a bit long, but hey if it can help at all in the field that I am such good friends and so very familiar with, I am all for it!

Visit here if you want to take it.

Sleigh bells ring are you listening...

2009-10-29T19:06:00.000+02:00

So its almost official. I am packin' my bags and headin' home for a month or so. (exciting, cause I can catch holiday sales and eat holiday inspired goodies and drink holiday flavored coffees. btw i don't do christmas anymore, some of my family does- but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the time, always have!) Don't judge me k? Don't ask me why either- k, thanks. LOL!!!

So here's the plan ....

1. I do immune testing now, in next few days and get results in like 10-14 days
2. I go home in early December come back to Cairo early January
3. Take immune test results with me in case I want to consult with anyone back home (not likely- mucho expensive there, but in case)
4. We start appropriate immune treatment (that is if needed) when I get home, or I start while I'm there- depending on what Dr. K suggests
5. IVF number 4 starts in January 2010

This is the best possible scenario for us. I really have to travel now and am not able to put that off.

So letting my precious little eggs age a few months more, will it affect us that much? Yes I know every second counts, but... I feel on one hand, we have been at this IVF for 4+ years (ttc for 10+, shut up, i know) now and another two months or so, so what.

Then I think ok, I am not 30 anymore...... I am 37, there I said it. So that puts me in that wonderful little 35 and over category that seems to deem all things fertile damned.

Oh well we shall hit the IVF heffa hard when I get back and hope 2010 is finally our year.

Infertility a great new gift for the holidays

2009-10-24T14:10:00.000+02:00

Well theres another possible little ~~bitch~~ glitch in our IVF game, what's new?

It seems I may be going home to take care of some business in December and I will have to be gone for like a month. (expense) So IVF gets put on hold.

I have not yet done any of the intended immune testing (expense), but I think I should try to get the tests done before I leave so this way they will be done, we will know what we have to address if anything and if I have any questions and if I wanted to talk to someone in the US (expense) about it I will have my results.

We were planning to start IVF this month, AF is here (yesterday) and we did not do anything. If I start injections next month, November, retrieval would fall like early December when I am planning to travel.

So, if i come back mid January, then that puts us into February's period, with retrieval being like in March, when my Mother is coming. I'd actually like to be happy and not the crying little bitch I turn into when I am doing a cycle.

I guess we could start in January (expense), but I will have just got home 2nd week or so in January, could be a little hectic? But I think that is the best scenario, maybe.

Oh the fun this infertility brings us, scheduling to try to get pregnant, and not even scheduling the "fun stuff" like before. Today the reality is scheduling injections (expense) and drugs (expense) and depression (not a monetary expense, but an expense) and hormones (expense), don't you just love it. I do.

Domino's Pizza Cairo, Egypt

2009-10-23T18:04:00.000+02:00

I think i ate pizza from Dominos like once when we lived in the US. We had our little neighborhood pizzeria that we always ordered from, a large cheese and 50 wings... man do I miss that!

But here, we usually get pizza from a local, non-US chain. And since Papa John's SUCKS and Pizza Hut is well just that, Pizza Hut, no difference from the US really, we decided to try Domino's for a change from our usual.

Here's our Egyptian Domino's pizzas.

Veggie Feast (green peppers, onions, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, black olives and jalapenos)

A slice of each. Aren't they cute, so tiny...

Deluxe Feast (Beef pepperoni, beef italian sausage, green peppers, mushrooms and onions).

The verdict...

We got two large, as we like to save for lunch the next day or sometimes a snack later, and they had a special for two large and a soda. These pizzas were like small sized mediums.

Could it be that we are used to American LARGE, no. Other pizza places here we ordered from had a decent sized large.

Maybe the photos don't show the acurate size, actually they look ok in the pics, but i swear to you, these were THE smallest larges we have ever seen, we laughed until we finished both of them.

Taste, not too bad. Will we order again from DomiNO's, um NO.

Oh Super S went up on the roof after we ate, snapped the picture below just before sunset...

And to those of you here from ICLW, welcome!!! Aren't you glad you stopped by for this exciting Friday review? Thanks, I know you'll be back soon.

Immune Testing for next IVF

2009-10-21T18:01:00.003+02:00

So my clinic does not do immune testing, but will treat it and do so regularly. I know weird. But then again all testing is done in labs outside premises of clinics and doctors offices usually. The doctor writes you a prescription for lab work requested, you take to lab and then bring results back to doctor.

You can also walk into any lab, pay and get tested for anything, no prescription needed. Same for medicines, go into pharmacy, pay and you are on your way. Only exception to this is some narcotics.

So i found a lab that will do the following immune tests for me:

1. APA
2. ANA
3. Thrombophilia Panel
4. ATA
5. Possibly an NK cell assay (on this one the lab wrote down test description as "Immunophenotyping CD56" Is this even a test that would show elevation or not in my NK cells?)

So my question is are these sufficient as a start to look at? Are there any other tests that I should absolutely do with these?

Also, if anyone knows about the NK test I described above, is this what I want or not?

I know some of you have experience with this immune testing and any advice would be greatly appreciated. xoxoxoxoxo

Wordless Wednesday: Speechless

2009-10-21T12:16:00.000+02:00

** CLICKING LINK BELOW WILL TAKE YOU TO A SATARICAL WEBSITE, NOT MINE, WITH A NOT SO NICE NAME... IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE OR GET OFFENDED EASILY DON'T VISIT**

Why the "BLANK" do you have a kid?

Check out other Wordless Wednesdays here

Thankful

2009-10-17T22:18:00.000+02:00

Today was a deep Saturday. Very.very.deep.

It started off by picking up Super S's brother and taking him across town, actually near downtown Cairo, to his first radiation appointment. He is not able to take chemo. His situation is actually pretty bad and not sure the radiation will stop the cancer from spreading, but hopefully it will relieve some of the pain he has and also kill some of the cancer cells.

While we were at this hospital, in the waiting room, there were lots of cancer patients there. Obviously they were going through chemo and/or radiation from their apperances. They touched my heart. A very fraile mother and her son holding her arm, a man who had the preparartory markings for radiation on his head (brain cancer maybe), an older woman in a wheelchair, fraile, tired and her face showed dispair. And then us, Super S's brother, who is a bit thin now, but no signs of treatment have affected him yet.

I sat there, tearing up, trying to hide this and then got up and walked outside. Super S came and we stood outside for awhile. I told him "you know we have a problem, but we are so lucky, we are healthy..." We said nothing for a few minutes but it was agreed.

Sure we long for a child, we are doing everything possible we can to fullfill this dream of ours, but we are healthy. I thanked God many times today for our health and asked Him, as I always do, to give us a child if that is His Will, but i will say, my suppplications today were more thankful for our health than usual.

Yesterday was also World Food Day and I saw a CNN International special, broke.my.heart. One in six people do not get enough food. 1.02 billion are considred hungry. So many of these are children. They showed videos of affected children, impossible to watch.

So while we long for our child, we are extremely thankful for good health, food to eat and pray for all those who don't have either.

Perfect moment monday on a friday

2009-10-16T05:34:00.000+02:00

What could be better than an e-mail like this from your Mom who is 5,500+ miles away from you on an early Friday morning.

"I wanted to tell you about a dream I had last night about you....you were just a sweet little girl of five...and I kept stroking your face...and kept saying..."I miss you so much"....it was so real and so sweet...and then I woke up..the dream has stayed with me all day!"

To post your Perfect Moment Monday, on a Monday- visit the great Weebles Wobblog.

Blogger bloglist widget- you CAN lose it!

2009-10-15T14:39:00.000+02:00

Those of you that are on my blogroll/bloglist, down to the right there, I love you!

Yup, i love you so much, that i manually entered all of your blog url's that the Blogger Bloglist widget LOST back onto my blog.

So if you are there and I haven't visited in awhile, doesn't mean i forgot you. I am planning to visit each and every one of you in the next few days. I appreciate your blog that much more after losing it. If you're not there and you should be, leave your blog url in the comment section here and I will add it.

Now i am working on entering the non-IF related blogs, under "I dig these too" as those were lost as well.

Word of advice:

If you are planning to make changes to your Blogger template or html, even if you save a copy, the bloglist widget info will be lost. As you know now, I learned the hard way.

I saved a copy BEFORE I made changes. Then I didn't like the changes i made, so I copied and pasted the OLD html I saved and all widgets were there EXCEPT for the bloglist widgets.

So i did a google search for my blog url, hit the CACHED button and got a snapshot of my blog from the day before. The bloglists were there and when i put my mouse on the blog name, it showed me the url at the bottom of my screen and I started entering away!

Spotlight? On who?

2009-10-14T18:14:00.001+02:00

Well i am very ~~surprised~~ proud to announce that I, you read right, yes me Wishing4One am the spotlight blog this month on the trakkrz infertilty page.

I am their first spotlight for the Infertility category and I am honored man!

Who would have thought anyone, let alone this great new site trakkrz, would spotlight the Wishy?

I guess my reproductive failures coupled with my "super fun life" in Cairo, Egypt is worth something after all, LOL!

Anyway check em out as they feature alot of blogs from the IF community and blogs on just about subject you can think of conveniently listed alphabetically.

If you're not listed there (i know alot of you are already) go ahead and get listed as its a fast, fun growing resource. And who wouldn't be cool, spelling trakkrz they way they do!

I promise to get back to my regular fun-filled posts you all ~~loathe~~ crave soon. Got a few things going one here, not infertility related and i will share with you soon. Have a great Wednesday! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

* EDIT* You may noticed some ads on my site now, I thought I would never ad ads, but momma needs some money even if its cents per click! I am even thinking of offering LOW monthly ads for people to place if they want. IVF hits the kitty hard man!

Wordless Wednesday: Rested

2009-10-14T12:28:00.001+02:00

Wordless Wednesday

Change of address and a cigarette

2009-10-11T00:06:00.000+02:00

Today Super S and I went to change the address on his ID. He did not update it since we moved into our house.

The office, police station actually (thats where you do this) was quiet, not too many people and it went rather smooth.

The guy at the window was smoking, no surprise, it's common. Strange smoking on the job I know, but extremely common.

The surprising thing was as we were standing to side of the walk-up window filling out the needed form, the guy just threw the cigarette out his window, into the waiting area where we were. It just flew by us.... very cool.

Wordless Wednesday: Stunted

2009-10-07T13:42:00.001+02:00

Wordless Wednesday , go ahead, play along!

If there was an award this post would get it

2009-10-05T01:11:00.000+02:00

No, no, no, not my post, this one that Lollipop Goldstein, a.k.a. our beloved Mel over at the new Stirrup-Queens wrote.

I know that all of you feel as I do, grateful to Mel for providing so many resources for those of us in the online ALI community.

I always think of Mel as like our den mother, or our RA in the dorm, or the cool teacher at school, or the lady in front of you in line at the grocery store who just excudes something special and you want to talk to her. Her brilliant writing and sincerity really come through in this one.

____________________________________________________________

In other news, we met with Dr. K yesterday, turned out to be an early appointment actually, 7:30pm, LOL. The really cool thing is that he called me! I was suppose to call him and hadn't yet by late afternoon and he called asking what time we could come in.

So in a nutshell, we are making some changes for IVF #4 this month. Won't go into too much detail now, but may share some later. I feel good about it and hope that the tweaks will help. It does involve some testing and appropriate treatments if we find we need them.

We stayed for three hours talking, and mind you this was not a pay appointment. Just like a pop-in conference, on him i guess? He's actually like a friend now- we invited him and his family to come to our home if he ever takes time off, which we told him we are sure he does.

Its so different here, you really feel at ease with doctors, or at least we have been lucky and its happened that way for us. We always have their mobile (cell) number, emails, etc. and can really call anytime we need to. Maybe you can too, I don't know, but this relationship with Dr. K is a special one. When we thanked him so much for meeting with us, he told us his wish is to always be able to see us and for our baby to arrive soon. He is so sincere and I swear it makes all the difference.

So fingers crossed, prayers ready, candles lit, whatever it is you do, join me in hoping maybe, just maybe four (4th IVF trial) and eight (8th embryo transfer) will be our lucky numbers. Hope you're weekend was great! xoxoxoxo

Friday Night Dinner Party

2009-10-02T02:30:00.000+02:00

... and we are the hosts!

Super S will have seven friends over, just the guys and not their entire families, which I am actually grateful for, for a few reasons....

One, we don't have dining room set yet, so its not so easy to seat so many. But we manage, every time.

We eat on the second floor, (or outside in the garden) where we have a fairly good sized round glass table and it is open to our living room area.

The first floor of our house, has a large open area for a dining room, and two salons (seating areas) and it is also where our kitchen is. We have not furnished it all yet. It needs so much and we are doing things little by little. IVF is more important than furniture, for now.

Two, I am just not in the mood for entertaining, well talking to ladies I don't know and the kids I am sure they would bring along. I love entertaining and having guests, its one of my favorite things to do, but these few days have been alittle tough. Not in the cheeriest of moods and thinking about the next IVF, hoping that we can get some answers before we go for it again. But I'm good, just don't feel like socializing I guess.

Anyway... I made my Gram's famous cheesecake and I must say looks yummy, even before the cherry topping I plan to put on it tomorrow. No graham crackers here so I crumble up these yummy butter cookies. I use a cheese called Kiri, its super creamy and better than Philadelphia I think (which they do have here). And the roll, that is how they sell wax paper here. Wora Zebda, translated literally to English is butter paper. You just cut it with scissors, I thought it was weird, but it works great! The white plastic container is yogurt bought fresh from a store that makes it daily. The other ingredients I did not photograph as they are pretty regular.

Super yummy rich butter cookies, Kiri cheese, wax paper without a dispenser and yogurt.

Crumbled butter cookie crust.

Bake me please!

Perfect, and no cracks. This is just my second time making too!

Making all this for Super S and his friends does make me feel good though. Its funny, every day after dinner, he always says "thank you for the food babe, it was so good." No matter what I make, he always says thank you and most always always says it was good. I think its so cute, what a great guy I have.

And what a patient guy I might add. I am not always easy to be around, I know surprising huh, LOL. I get my share of moodiness and more than less these days too. He deals with me in such a good way and alot of times I feel guilty for feeling so shitty. I am so lucky in so many ways, I just wish I could be lucky in the baby department too. I am grateful for everything I have and I try to focus on that.

Its cliche, but if it is meant for us, it will be. If not, well then I have to live with that. But i always end that statement, I feel like it is meant for us.

Saturday night meeting

2009-09-30T22:45:00.000+02:00

I just called Dr. K, an RE at the IVF center. I told him briefly of our concerns after our 7 failed embryo transfers and that I would sending him an email to look at.

I forwarded him some of the articles I have been reading on genetic/immune testing for us and for our embryos. He told me he would respond to my email and that we should come in and meet him Saturday night to discuss things.

So, thats where we're at now.

Again not sure what tests are available here to me, but i would ~~think~~ hope at least maybe some are. The doctor who runs this clinic was educated, licensed and practised in the UK from what I understand. They seem to be technologically up to speed and they should be continually progressing in this field. Let's hope so. Their success rates are great, lets hope we can add our ourselves to their statistics as a success as well.

Honestly, we can not afford to go back to the USA and do any of this. I wish we could, but the fact is- we cannot. Although it is extremely affordable here in comparison to the States, we have still spent a ton of money.

Thank you

2009-09-28T11:41:00.001+02:00

Thanks to all of you who left comments on my post below. I agree some testing is in order. I will see if they do this testing here, i sure hope so, and we'll go from there.

Please keep Super S's older brother in your thoughts.... he is battling cancer and it's not looking good. He is not strong enough to take chemo, so we are not sure what the next step will be.

He has just two brothers now, Super S is now the youngest, after losing his youngest brother this year and his oldest a few years back. A very sad time for the family.

Any opinions my fellow RE's in training?

2009-09-26T12:55:00.000+02:00

Who better to ask for an opinion than someone who has went through the same thing as you have, right? While we are not doctors, (although some of us I bet are just as educated now in infertility issues) it helps to read and share our experiences with IF, heck isn't that why alot of starting blogging?

* I don't want to be too graphic, but a few things I must say if any of you can shed any light on them. Dad, you should skip this post, really nothing here you'd be intrested in. You'd thank me, believe me.

Ok here's the deal....

I have two major issues I want to solve before our next try at IVF next month, God Willing. Of course I will discuss these with my RE but wanted to throw them out there to you, as you may be able to suggest what I should be asking in addition to what questions I will form after doing research online with Dr. Google.

One is my cervix is low, i mean quite low. It comes and goes, meaning its lower sometimes more than others but definitely a new thing to have happen to me. I mean I can actually feel it, like dropping or just being there but low, if you will, when i bend down, while going to the bathroom etc. I have also noticed in my last two periods, when my flow gets lighter the blood seems to be a darker, brownish color and streaky, like it is flowing from my cervix that way? Could there be blood somewhere there is not suppose to be? I only noticed AFTER i had my last fallopian tube ligated by the way. Not sure there is any connection though.

The other issue is the failure of the seven (7) embryo replacements, the 3 IVF trials, we did over the past 4 years. I have read that pre-embryo genetic testing can be done. I also read that there are a host of immune disorder tests that cane be done, but that if someone, like me, who has had several failed IVF's is not recommended to do these tests as it will not change treatment??? Huh?

So my internet lovelies, any thoughts? Is there anything you are sure I should bring up with my doctor?

I will start my research and try to formulate some questions in addition to the obvious "why haven't any of these transfers worked? What can we do, if anything, before this next IVF trial?"

Low cervix and mutiple failed IVF cycles, what should I be sure to ask? If any of you did specific tests after a failed IVF cycle, what were they?

I know, i know you are not giving medical advice, and I am not seeking it ok. (Damn, should I have even said that? Nope, think not). I mean we blog about TTC, infertility, surgeries- we discuss so many treatments and protocols, we know we are not RE's right? (laughing)

Love you all and a big thanks in advance cause you guys always come through!!! xoxoxoxoxoxo

Baby Cory dancing to Beyounce

2009-09-26T05:26:00.000+02:00

Just saw this on CNN International, Anderson Cooper 360. Made my early Saturday morning. That babys got some moves. It looks real, not edited, just a mom (or someone) catching their baby getting down to Beyounce, too cute!

It better be imported

2009-09-24T20:53:00.000+02:00

Before Super S and i moved to Cairo we had a few friends from Cairo visit us in the States. A big portion of all their visits was shopping. They bought clothes mostly, including shoes, but make-up, knick knacks and a few other items as well.

I witnessed the same thing happening on each shopping trip. They would pick up an item, look at the tag if it was clothing or turn it over and look at bottom of item it if wasn't. What in the hell are looking for? I knew it wasn't the size as they had picked up the right one, then on non-clothes items looking at bottoms of items, at back of boxes, wtf where they doing?

They were looking to see where that item was made. I was like "um, why?" I never fully understood why it mattered to them where something was made. Super S and I said to each other at the time, we could not remember a time we ever looked at an items origin before we bought it. We saw something we liked, we checked it out good, we bought it.

Ha, ha, ha. But now, now my friends WE look at EVERYTHING's origin. Whether its food, a shirt, electronics, lotion you name we MUST know where it was made. Why you ask?

Well see my friends because we live in Egypt. And here unfortunately, so unfortunately I add, Egyptian made products tend to suck. Bad.

Funny thing is many of my Victorias Secret underwear say "made in Egypt". I have awesome 450tc sheets that say "made in Egypt". I also have to die for fluffly 100% Egyptian cotton bath sheets that also read "made in Egypt." So where are these high quality excellent made Egyptian made products you ask? Not available for us to buy, HERE IN EGYPT!!! I know. Insane.

It seems all the good quality things are made here and then exported. Its sad as heck because in Cairo they import SO MUCH goods to sell locally, while they produce so much for export. Leaving Egyptian made goods of a very low quality available locally. Makes no sense at all.

We just got it actually. Well I'd say the second year we were living here. We went shopping for some home items with friends and everything I picked up, my friend looked to see where it was made. There she goes again. I asked her, "why does it matter..." She then told me Egyptian mde products were not good qaulity and do not last, sad but indeed true.

Now not everything made here is shit, but electronics, many (not all) clothes and shoes (ALL) available locally and made in Egypt all suck. Sorry.

It is a tragedy in so many ways. The better quality items that are imported and sold here are alot more expensive for people and many cannot afford to buy them.

So i ask myself, why is it that Egyptian companies that work in producing items to export cannot do the same for their country and make available here? Is it because the US and foreign companies pay for the better quality/materials for them and they themselves could not afford to do it for local availablity? It shouldn't be. Once they spend that money and make a good quallity product people will buy. They will buy for sure.

Its a fact that the population here is very poor. With a small number if people holding most of the wealth. The upper middle class is growing but there are so many people who live on just a few dollars a day. They will never be able to afford imported items and they have to settle for lesser quality goods no doubt.

How important is it to be able to buy imported goods is not my point. But I just wish some of the export quality was available to us locally. I mean I go to the States to buy good Egyptian cotton sheets, how cRaZy is that????

Just search e.bay, there is are so many items "imported from Egypt" and they are selling. Yes because they are good quality.

I remember a customer of ours said to me before we left "send me some good egyptian cotton sheets...
Sure I said. She's still waiting.

*** DISCLAIMER*** I am NOT knocking Egypt at all. I love it here, its my home now. But this part of it fdrives me nuts and I just can't figure out why they do this. If you visit here you'll be sure to find some good quality Egyptian made items at tourist bazaars though, why of course.

Our five babies

2009-09-23T00:00:00.000+02:00

First welcome ICLW for September 2009. I just love this week of commenting as I find so many new awesome blogs.

So welcome to you and hope you will visit this fun-filled blog of mine again, not just today. It really is fun-filled, really. If you want to read about our struggle to have our baby after 13 years of marriage and 11 years of TTC, (3 IVF trials that included 7 embryo transfers, IVF #4 just around the corner, October 2009) if you like reading about cats, if life in Cairo Egypt fascinates you then you'll want to be sure to bookmark or follow me, LOL. What an inticing invite huh?

So its been a while since I shared our babies with you. As some of you know Fiona had 4 kittens, there are only 3 now, Amelia has been gone a month. We HOPE that someone took her and is caring for her as good as we would, but we just don't know?

Charlie has grown into such a loving, kind boy, he is my favorite and I just love him! He is the biggest of all the babies and the nicest too. He could easily kick all their butts but doesn't it, it seems when they play fight he goes easy knowing he is bigger. He loves to cuddle and is very loving.

Naranja is Super S's favorite! We thought he was a boy, but are thinking maybe a girl? We should know soon... but it is looking like maybe a girl? I thought this color was always a boy no? He/she is very selfish. He eats the most, growls and is a bully. He is the smallest of all, but really irresistible with his cute temperment.

Now ET is a girl and she is a fighter! She is very tough and a great hunter! She loves moths, is a great climber and is very fast. She always catches her moth and the occasional black beetle looking insect then eats them, LOL. She is fast with her hands and can hold her own. Doesn't she look like a gremlin? She is the only one with the exact coloring of her mommy.

Fiona is such a good mommy, she takes such good care of her babies. She absolutely loves us too now and is no longer scared.at.all.

And of course, Florenzo our original baby... who is not at all interested in his kittens nor Fiona anymore LOL. I snapped this of him, looks like he's waiting for take-off.....