Monday, December 24, 2012

The Cat's Out of the Bag!

With the gathering of family and friends, we decided that now is as good a time as ever to let everyone in on our news. Reactions have been interesting and varied.

I've been getting a lot of "why/how did you decide to do this?" I know I talked about it a bit in my first post, but I'll go over it again.

Surrogacy has been something that has interested me for a number of years. When I first brought it up to Shawn, he said that he would help me look into it, but maybe wait until our family might be done. No problem there for me as I was thinking the same thing.

Fast forward a couple years. I'm pregnant with our second child and a friend of mine who struggled with infertility for a number of years becomes pregnant with twins. We chat via Facebook about hanging out while we both are on maternity leave. I had our little girl and three weeks later I received a text from my friend's husband letting me know the twins miscarried. Ugh.

As I looked at our two beautiful girls and sit amazed at the blessing in my life, I told my husband that I need to help a couple have a child so they can experience the blessing we have.

Meanwhile, thoughts of surrogacy were put on hold as we walked with my dad through his final stages of cancer and finally as he made his home in heaven. I miss him terribly, but know he fought a difficult fight here on earth and he deserves the rest he now has with the angels.

As we put the grief of my dad's passing behind us, I felt it was time to stop dwelling on myself and start focusing on how I could help others. And our surrogacy hunt began!

Lots of Internet research later and chatting with a few people who have gone through the process, I decided to go through an agency that specializes in surrogacy and fertility. I figured that way I won't have to reinvent the wheel on the whole process and get some help and support along the way. (Read back blogs to get the saga between then and now.)

So, that's my story. Our friends whom we've told have been incredibly supportive and some have even been enthusiastic to hear of our plans! Our families have been cautious and guarded, mostly out of concern for me, my physical and mental health, and my relationship with Shawn. I can understand that concern and hope that as we go along they see how excited I am to be helping M & A (or another couple) have the blessing they have been praying for.

Little Miracle, I'm ready for you!

Saturday, December 22, 2012

A Package Arrives!

This week has been a busy emailing week between me and the agency. Here's the recap:

-Ovulation has occurred! Not for me (not a big deal if I ovulate, as we don't want my egg anyway). The doctor's office is tracking both our cycles for obvious reasons.

-I chatted with a pharmacist for quite a while. The fertility doctor came up with a medication protocol for me leading up to transfer and for a bit after. This leads to...

-A package arrived on my doorstep! Friday, after I came home from work I saw a box. I love boxes and packages and fun mail! Anyway, I excitedly opened the box to find it filled with tablets and vials and syringes and vaginal suppositories and alcohol prep pads. (Too much info? I never said that this process was pretty)

The deal with the meds is that I will be starting them next month on my January day 1 (first day of next period.) Hello, injections! Then, they will tell me when to start the others...

Let's get this miracle started! Merry Christmas!