Good Morning!

Last night, my Cub Scout Pack had our Blue & Gold banquet...which is the annual party that the Cub Scouts put on every February in honor of the birthday of the Boy Scouts of America on February 8. (We turn 99 years old this year!)

Naturally, as your blog Cubmaster, I was in charge of the festivities last night, and a fine time was had by all.

But....I might not have been there at all. Sure, I've been involved in Scouting since I joined as a youth myself *a few years ago*, but these days any adult in the movement without an actual child of his own in the program is often looked at askance. Why is he there, anyway?

Fortunately, our son is 7 years old this year, and is a happy Wolf Cub Scout.

We're lucky to have him at all.

Mrs. TriSec and I were married in 1996...for our first year or so of marriage, we were perhaps overly cautious in certain areas, taking the necesary steps to prevent an unplanned pregnancy while we were busy being newlyweds and setting up a home and getting our finances settled.

Eventually, we tried to "get it done". As the months passed, and no babies were forthcoming, we gradually realized that something wasn't working correctly. We actually went through two fertility doctors...our first round was with a quack/clinic that had a multitude of problems....not the least of which was the attitude of the doctors that thought Mrs. TriSec was crazy. After we quit the clinic, news broke that they were being investigated for insurance fraud.

So that brings us to our second clinic. We chose Boston IVF, fortunately right around the corner from home here in Waltham.

Advanced Reproductive Therapies are quite a thing, with a multitude of programs and options to choose from. After our diagnosis, some medical things were discovered with Mrs. TriSec that actually needed surgery to correct. Your poor TriSec was diagnosed with uhh....low counts and weak swimmers (probably the result of a bout of Chicken Pox I had at age 21), and that contributed to our lack of babies.

At the time, we chose the GIFT process, which was minimally invasive and had a reasonable success rate (25-30%). Alas, after several rounds, there was still no baby....so rather than try for more complex or advanced therapies, Mrs. TriSec and I decided that it was not to be, and we moved on.

By now you know "the rest of the story"...we spent another 18 months investigating adoption agencies, then going through the arduous approval process, and finally making it to Manila to bring home Javier in 2002.

Long story for a Saturday morning....why am I telling you this?

Because I'm still at a loss for words...and now the doctor is under investigation.

This is wrong on so many levels, I don't know where to begin.