My husband's parents tried for years to conceive and ultimately were not able to have their own biological children. They chose adoption, and after years of waiting they were blessed with 2 boys. I am so grateful, that because of one mother's selfless choice to give her child a better life, my husband was given an amazing opportunity with the most loving parents he could have found.
While we know how wonderful adoption is, we also know what a profound moment it is to see yourself reflected in the eyes of your children. To see our son, the spitting image of his father but full of energy just like me, and our oldest daughter my mini-me, quiet and determined like Johnny.
It was because of this that I had been looking into surrogacy even before we were done having our own children. I knew that if my sisters needed a carrier that I'd be the first in line. Upon having our 3rd and final child, finding out my younger sister was expecting her first child and my older sister was expecting her second, I knew they wouldn't need me to carry for them. That is when I looked online and found an amazing agency and thus began my emails with Tina.
After a few emails I approached Johnny and he thought I was crazy. After lots of reading and a
chance meeting with a local couple whom had just had a surro-baby with the same agency, Johnny
came around and was fully on board. I made it clear that without his full and willing consent I could
not be a surrogate. I knew I needed his support and would need it for the duration of our "journey".
(I put "journey" in quotes because it is a highly overused word in the surrogacy world and yet we have not come up with a better one lol)
After a ton of paperwork, blood tests, background checks and a home visit, all of which took a few months, we were ready to make our profile and be put in the surrogate pool~ awaiting our match. This brings us to Sara and Jon.
After reading their profile I was certain that they were our couple. I felt an immediate connection- not only with their story- but it felt like they could have been old friends of ours. Soon after our decision to move forward we had a conference call with Sara, Jon and Tina which solidified our decision.
After the call, Sara and I emailed back and forth awaiting our first meeting in mid-June. As the days got closer excitement grew into nerves for me. Would they like us? Will this work? I tried not to get my hopes up which is difficult because I am the eternal optimist :-)
Our meeting was better than I could have imagined, Johnny and I flew to Philidelphia and spent the day with Sara and Jon. We met Emma, Sara and Jon's giant dog :-) she approved of us so we proceeded with the day. We played a scavenger hunt game with the cell phone which took us to Independece Hall, Thomas Jefferson's grave and the oldest lived-on street in America- among others. It was a great ice breaker, and we learned that Sara and I have a lot in common, as do Jon and
Johnny. We had an amazing dinner and took off first thing in the morning for New Jersey and our all day appointment.
Our all day appointment went well, some blood work, psychological testing and we learned how to go about giving shots. We got a wonderful surprise that day, we learned that we could do the transfer by the end of the month! That was a shock....a good one! And so began our "journey".
~Desiree
Johnny and I on the plane ready to go to Philidelphia to meet Jon and Sara
The 4 of us in Philly
Johnny after the psychologial questionaire...360 questions takes it out of you lol.
This is Emma, the picture just cannot do her size justice :)
