Moving right along

They like me! They really, really like me!

I just got a phone call from Sugar. She was calling to let me know that Carly had called her and said that her and Ben had definitely decided to use Sugar's agency, that their enrollment check was in the mail along with their consent form, and that Sugar should receive it sometime Monday or Tuesday. Sugar also told me that Carly and her husband wanted me to know that they really liked me, they thought I sounded sweet and was pretty. They want me to wait for them, and please give them consideration first. I said "what?" when Sugar told me that. "Yep" she said, "I sent them your sneek peek information and your picture when I mailed their consent form. They think you're adorable."
(Now I don't know if those are their words or Sugar's, but that's what she said.)
By the way, the sneek peek info has my picture, my stats like height, weight, age, location, marital status, how many children you've had, ethnic background, religion, compensation, my feelings on IVF procedures like selective reduction, the amount of embryos that you're comfortable transferring etc, the amount of contact during pregnancy you desire, and you are asked to write a letter to the prospective intended parents. So you can see that it is a little nerve racking knowing that a couple is reading about you and trying to decide if you'll be a suitable match to carry their child. Of course I take this as the highest compliment you could give someone. To entrust your child to another person's care 100%.
I was very happy to hear that they want me to look at their sneek peek info (not sure what they had to fill out) because they liked what they saw in me, and that we may be a potential match. I should get the info by Tuesday or Wednesday next week. If I'm also interested in them, I call Sugar and let her know. The next step will be for us to meet. Wow. Things are moving right along.

Now, I just noticed that I had a comment from Thalia, asking me what drew me to surrogacy. Since this journal is so new, I haven't really touched on it yet.
It basically comes down to this.
I first considered it when I was 27. I had read about gestational surrogacy, and it struck a chord within my heart. I thought, "what an incredible thing to do." I knew that it was something that would be fulfilling to me as a person. I knew it would be something that I would be wonderful at. I am a very open person, I love to talk and share with other people. I really enjoyed my pregnancies. I had already given birth to my two children, and knew that I was finished with building my family. My husband is a wonderful guy that didn't bat an eyelash when I told him about it. I think his reply was something like "Yeah, that sounds like something you would do." I started researching surrogacy and how to become one.
I learned that the state in which I reside is not a "surrogacy friendly" state. It popped my bubble. I looked around for quite some time, but couldn't figure out a way to make it happen in my state. I thought I would have to put it on a shelf until maybe a time when I didn't live here, or the laws changed in my area.
Last year something happened to a friend of mine online and she was going to look into gestational surrogacy. Once again, my interest was fueled. I started digging in deeper. I found some surrogacy message boards and I started asking questions. I found that with the right help, anything was possible. I offered surrogacy to my friend, and learned that she had already found a surrogate. But I was really wanting to do this. I decided to post an independant advertisemnet on SMO. I got many replies. I ended up in contact with a couple that lived only 40 minutes from me. We sent a few emails, and then decided to talk on the phone. We got along great on the phone and decided to meet. We met the first week on January this year, by February we had a contract and were cycling. In March' 05 ( I'll call her Sally) had her retrieval, and affter being on high doses of stim meds for 22 days, they retieved ONE degenerated egg. We were all devastated. No eggs to fertilize= no embryos=no transfer. They decided to do another cycle. By the way, they had no IVF coverage, this was all out of pocket to them.
Cycle two. May '05
Highest doses of stims our clinic allows for 19 days for Sally. Her E2 just wouldn't rise. Retrieval resulted in 4 eggs. 2 immature, two mature. Both fertilized, both transferred. Neither took. Was it a embryo quality issue after being on 900 units of Gonal F plus Repronex for that long? Probably.
Sally and Don were crushed, as was I. I went so far as to offer Traditional Surrogacy to them. (after talking to my husband of course)
We had grown very close in the 5 months we'd been together. Sally was willing, happy even, to consider it. Don on the other hand told her he just wasn't happy with the idea. He was very set on having their child be biologically related to both of them. Sally was quite sad, as they were no longer able to continue cycling due to the lack of coverage.
Sally and I still email, and she says she hope that I continue on the surrogacy path and that I have a success story one day. God, I wish it would have worked for them.
As you know, IVF is hard to let go of. Once it has it's claws in you you'll do it again and again, if financially possible, to get that postive outcome. I refuse to give up. Going to all of the monitoring appts, taking all the pills and patches and taking all the shots in the ass is hard, but getting that negative is MUCH harder. I want to help another woman achieve motherhood more than anything. I decided to continue on.
In June I decided to enroll with an agency. Doing all the legwork is tiring, and this time I wanted someone else to do the screening of a couple, and all of the legalwork for me. I had all of my required paperwork (and BOY is there a TON of it) completed and sent to the agency of my choice in August. My story picks up in my journal from there.
I hope this answers your question Thalia. Please ignore all spelling mistakes, I've got to go help TJ with a science kit. No time for editing. Nite guys.