Thursday, February 16, 2012

Couldn't be more excited!

Wow, what a day we've had.  A great, perfect, extraordinary day.

It started at 6am when we hopped into the car and headed to Wisconsin to the Agency we are working with.  We met LeeAnn right away and I instantly knew we were in the right place.  Everything was no natural & I felt like I could talk to her for hours.
For the next two hours we talked about the entire process and what we could expect.  It was so nice to be able to ask ANY questions we had & also to be able to hear what this journey was going to be like.  We talked about all the "what ifs" and "could yous"....  LeeAnn was very impressed with us & said we were ideal candidates.  We still weren't 'in the clear' YET since we had 3-4 hours of psychological testing & interviews to do.  But, we were pretty confident that would go ok.

Well, it did!  We talked about everything with the psychologist.  Our childhood, parents, siblings, the way we were raised, our values, our beliefs, our life experiences, why we want to do surrogacy, our jobs, my past pregnancy, the boys, and basically anything else you can think of!  It was great for us to get everything out there and also for the doctor to read into anything we said and ask us questions about that circumstance.

She also went into great detail about all of the emotions that will come with surrogacy.  It was good to hear it from a doctor that ALL emotions will be normal.  I know this baby will not be mine in ANY way, shape or form, but she reminded me that we are all human.  So, after the baby is born, REAL emotions will happen.  So, she reminded Steven that he needs to be there for me, 100%.  Which, I have no reservations about.  We talked about all the 'what ifs' and 'could yous' with the doctor too.  And, she was very candid in explaining the situations that could arise.  It was great to be reminded that this might not be an easy process... but it was also helpful since Steven and I have already had all these converstation & we were on the exact same page.
We finished our personality assesments (350 question fill-in-the-bubble test), our individual interview & interview together... we were anxious to hear what the doctor had decided about us.
She said "well, you guys are ideal candidates.  I would be thrilled for you to be a carrier"
We heard later that she actually told the director of the agency "Man, I wish I could clone this couple!  I wish all couples were like this!"
That warmed my heart.  I knew that Steven & I are emotionally strong enough to do this, but it is great to hear it from a professional that just listened to us babble on and on for 4 hours about ourselves  :)

The agency & doctor both told Steven and I that we have an advantage over other surrogates because of our past pregnancy with the twins.  Surprised by that?  Yeah, me too.  But, I guess we are pretty well rounded & have dealt with many decisions that most people hope to never have to make.  We were approached with selective reduction, laser ablation surgery, preterm delivery, and NICU time... lots and lots of NICU time.  So, I guess this really proves that we can deal with stress & not turn into wackos  :)

So, what next?  Well, we wait.  They said that we probably won't be waiting very long because a match will be VERY easy to do for us.  Some surrogates have very strict 'rules' and 'guidelines' about what they will carry, who they will carry for, etc, etc and we are pretty open to any loving parent who comes our way.  We want the parent(s) to know that this is their child.  They get to make the major decisions about life long choices.

So, we are excited to hear back about a potential match!  Could be a week... could be 10 weeks.  Who knows.  But, as soon as we hear anything, we will let you know!  Oh, and BTW... they have a lot of out of the country parents.  How cool would that be?!
Ok, I have officially rambled on for way too long!  This was a hodge podge entry... sorry!  I am just too excited to make sense of all this!!

Thank you for your support!  The news is officially OUT!  (haha.. which in todays world means its been posted on Facebook :)


1 comment:

  1. I randomly came across your blog, and I'm starting from the beginning. I'd love if you would share the name of the agency you are/have worked with; as I am very interested in surrogacy as well. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete