Yea, yea, I know.....I've been HORRIBLE about updating lately! :) I am 35 1/2 weeks now and feeling it! Overall I feel great, but I'm definitely feeling "third trimester" pregnant. My feet are swollen now, back hurts, bathroom visits are increasing, I'm more tired and so forth; all of which to be expected. We are down to the last few weeks and needless to say, I'm ready! I've typed up a birth plan for them to have in the hospital so that everything goes as best as we can make it! I'm getting lots of questions about how I'm feeling about "giving the baby up" and things like that, so I'm gonna tell you about all that:
As a reminder, this baby is not genetically linked to me in any way! Throughout this pregnancy, I've done nothing to create a bond with him; I've not even talked to him or sung to him. In all honesty and I don't mean this in a bad way, but he feels like a foreign being to me, which in all reality is a good thing! I have no issues with "giving him up" when he is delivered. In fact, I'm looking forward to it!! This means I can go home, rest and recover with no crying & hungry baby to wake me!! :) The parents will be there for the delivery, although not during the labor. I do have natural (no drugs) labors and due to that and the need to focus, it's just going to be me and Shane during the labor. Besides, it's boring in there for anyone just watching. So, they will be called in when it's time to deliver and he is to be handed immediately over to the parents or nurse upon delivery. Contact with them and their baby will happen after I'm cleaned up. I want them to have their moment with their new baby and the initial bonding time. They deserve it....I've had my children and know that feeling and I want them to have that as well! I will be able to go home whenever my midwives release me, which could be as early as 6 hours after delivery if all is well. They, of course, will stay at the hospital with the baby until he is released, which is usually at least 24 hours after delivery. We will meet up with them (probably even visit back at the hospital) when they go to leave to see them all before they head home and so that our children can meet little Preston, as children won't be allowed in the hospital due to the swine flu mess. Then they will be on their way! We do intend to stay in contact with them and I'm sure visit from time to time. They have become a part of our lives to an extent now.

I hope that answered most of the questions that many of you have or may come up with. We're all very excited and the parents are just thrilled! It's hard to believe it's almost here!! I can't wait to let you all know when he's here!!!
Love to all and thanks for all the prayers!

Wow! Here I am finally! Life has gotten busy and it's been hard for me to get on here for any decent amount of time these days. With the kids in school and preschool, me working and then all the other things that come about, the computer has been low on the priority list.
So, anyway......I am almost 28 weeks pregnant (come Tuesday) according to my last visit. It's changed just by a few days, so close enough right? I have grown a lot in my opinion, although most people think I'm still rather small, that is compared to my pregnancies with my own two children. I'm pretty much all belly and I am having a harder time eating and breathing. I feel like a tick after each meal, which makes it hard to breathe and/or want to do anything! lol I don't recall such a hard time with my own boys, but I think they spread out more to the side versus up and down like this one. However, it has been over 4 years since my last pregnancy, so my memory could be serving me wrong. :) Who knows..... We had another ultrasound two weeks ago and the baby looks great. They are doing ultrasounds roughly every 6 weeks to check his progress, because the umbilical cord attached to the side of the placenta versus the middle and when that happens there's a very small chance of malnourishment, so they just want to keep watch. No big deal really and he's doing great! I find it really neat that the placenta has attached to the front of my uterus (meaning front portion of my belly) to where it cushions a lot of his kicks. I feel him mostly on the sides, top and bottom. That explained why it took so long for me to be able to really feel him, too. I think it's neat b/c maybe that's God's way of helping me keep from feeling him too much since he's not mine. I don't know. :) The parents are just so ecstatic and God has done so much in their lives. Our own children have been such huge blessings through all of this. When we sit down to eat, we pray. We ask them who they'd like to pray for at each meal and lately they say the baby. The coolest part is when they pray, they thank God for "the baby that momma's carrying for someone else and just protect the baby." It is just adorable! They seem to have no problem whatsoever with grasping the fact that this baby will not be coming home with us! I love it! God has really blessed our household tremendously! We will be going to Atlanta on Thursday for the hearing to make sure the parental rights go to P&K and then next week I get to do the yummy 1 hour glucose test. Eck! I just gag thinking about that drink! lol Time is moving fast. I have only 3 months left! Hard to believe! I'll try to get on here more often to update......no promises, but I'll try. ;)

So sorry it's taken me so long to update!! I am 19 weeks now.....moving right along! I feel great! We had an ultrasound on Tuesday, Sept 1st, and things are looking great and they found out that they're having a boy!!! It was so sweet; P, the mother, was in tears. She brought her mother with her, which was a neat time. Unfortunately K was not able to make it, but he was overjoyed by the news.
Also, a few weeks ago we finally shared the news of this baby with our own children. They are such wonderful and sweet children! Roman, especially, is so sweet and tender with me and my belly. He comes up and gives my belly kisses and such and understands the concept that we aren't keeping the baby.
Well, it's late, but I knew I needed to update! Love to all!

I am now 11 weeks and 5 days pregnant now. It's so hard to believe I'm almost past the first trimester! I can feel it too b/c my energy has been returning and I just feel better overall. Not that I ever felt bad, but the fatigue really got me there for a little while.
This morning we had an ultrasound appointment with a maternal fetal specialist. I did not share this minor detail b/c I did not want to bring any kind of negativity into this whole thing. The first two ultrasounds we had the the fertility office showed the baby looking great, but the amniotic sac growing a little behind the baby. With each u/s, the baby and sac grew, but the sac continued to just measure about a week roughly behind the baby's size. The Dr, although not extremely concerned, still wanted to practice some precaution and wanted us to have a high resolution ultrasound with a maternal-fetal specialist. It, of course, concerned us all a little, but as I've said from the beginning, God has been in control and it's in His hands and I just knew all would be fine. We were fine with getting this better look and a 2nd opinion. So, today was the day. K, the intended father, was able to make it here to Asheville for it and my husband was also able to join us. We got great news that the baby was continuing to look great and measuring right on target and the sac looked good. The sac was still a "little" small, but not below normal, just below average. However, they said there was no cause for any concern and that it all looked good to them. The sac was plenty big enough for the baby and gave him/her room to move and grow and the baby looked great, which was the main thing! They will follow up with us a few more times through the pregnancy, but we are all very relieved and thankful to our Lord & Savior for His continued faithfulness! We are going to have quite a story to tell when this is all over! God is definitely keeping it interesting, but it's all for His glory and that's what's most important!
So, today has been a GREAT day. To top it off, the boys and I stopped to see my dad (they wanted to give their Baba hugs and kisses) and he treated us to Subway, which is exactly what my pregnant body was wanting at the time. Praise the Lord! lol God is good....right down to my cravings. hehe I love it!

First Trimester Fun

So, I am now 9 weeks pregnant. More symptoms are arising as I move along this wonderful journey. So, to add to the frequent bathroom visits, sore breasts and frequent hunger, I can now add a little sickness and food "cravings" and / or dislikes. Along with my hunger, I will get sick if I don't eat fairly quickly or keep food on my stomach. I don't feel as though I have got to puke, but I get a little nauseous, weak and even a little faint sometimes. The key really is just not letting myself get hungry at all if I can help it. I don't mean eat constantly, but I can tell when my body is nearing the hunger stage and if I catch it in time, I won't get hungry to get nauseous, etc. I'm not always successful, though. :( This is so far the easiest I've had it, though, although it wasn't too bad even with my own boys. I won't complain by any means! I am not craving anything in particular persay, but I desire "cold" items. I don't get this horrible craving like I have to have something or die! haha It's just that when I get hungry, cold items are more appealing and desirable and won't make me nauseous to think about. Cold items, meaning fruit, veggies, pb&j, etc. For some reason, not many "hot" items are on my list. We went to see Transformers 2 over the weekend (great movie by the way) and I was with 3 big guys and my 2 little guys. We decided on Firehouse Subs, which wasn't too appealing to me but I was NOT going to be the annoying and picky one out of all of us. If you've never been there, and I had not before this, their sandwiches are warm. They're like a Subway, sort of, with warm meat and cheese and all that. I did all I could to eat the first half of my sandwich without puking and I had to give the other half away. It wasn't bad tasting, just not what my pregnant body wanted. Anyone who's been pregnant knows that if you try to eat something your body does not really want when pregnant, it does not work. I gave the other half away and ate my son's pb&j. He didn't want it. :) I had to eat something! Of course, my hubby got irritated with me over it saying I was being silly, but what does he know. hehe He's never been preggo!
Anyway, long story, but I found it funny and cute and wanted to share. So, all in all I feel great! Sadly, I am already in some maternity clothes b/c this body did not waste ANY time beginning to get bigger! Of course, it didn't help that I had a little extra weight on my in the beginning. Ugh! Oh well. Not much I can do now besides exercise and stay healthy during the pregnancy then work my butt off afterwards to lose it all and some!

So, we had our first ultrasound last Thursday, June 11th. What a cool and exciting day! I can only imagine what my IPs were feeling! We got to see the little peanut....yes, just one! Everyone was sort of hoping twins, but one is good too! It'll be easier on me and I won't have to worry much about a cesarean, minus an emergency. Those of you who know me know how much into my vaginal, natural childbirth I am and the thought of twins kinda scared me just a little when it came to the delivery part. But, I also knew that God was in control and if it was twins, all that would be fine and taken care of. No matter what, His will would be done. My IPs were very excited. They even gave me a picture of the ultrasound, which I was not expecting nor would have asked for! That was cool! Our next ultrasound comes up next Monday, June 22nd.

I am definitely feeling pregnant. Along with peeing more, breast soreness and fatigue, I have now begun to eat like my last meal was yesterday! Ha! I have been getting hungry so much more throughout the day and when I get hungry, I MUST eat! It's serious! I get a little shaky and almost nauseous until I eat. The bad thing, is when I get to that point and I finally eat, I almost eat too much and I make myself nearly sick from pigging out! lol So far, though, I've not had any morning sickness hit me yet. I'm 7 weeks and so that means I have 5 more weeks roughly to either get sick or say I didn't have it. I had it with my boys, but not bad and it only lasted a month with each of them. So, we'll see!

On a different note, my youngest son turned 4 yesterday!!! Come fall, I'll have one starting kindergarten and one starting preschool! Yay for some cool milestones!!!

Beta results #2!

So, I'm little behind in updating my blog, but here I am! :) Last Tuesday, May 26th, I had my 2nd blood test drawn. I am so excited to say it came back with number of 171, meaning I'm still pregnant and the numbers are great! Of course, my body didn't take long to start telling me it was pregnant. lol When bathroom visits become more frequent and some, errr, soreness (if you know what I mean) begins, it's pretty obvious! So far, no morning sickness, but I didn't escape it with either of my boys so I am sure it will peak around the corner soon. However, how awesome would that be if God blessed me with NO morning sickness!!! I'll take whatever, I'm just excited to be pregnant and to start this part of the journey with my awesome IP's!! I love them so much and just to hear the excitement from them reminds me constantly why I'm doing this and makes it all worthwhile! Not that I need reminding, but it's just constant reminders I guess. We go next Thursday, June 11th, for our ultrasound!!! 11:30pm! I can't wait.....could be two! :) We'll see. That would be so cool, and certainly a new experience for me!

First Results

I had my first blood test drawn on Friday and the numbers were 49.0! That means I'm pregnant!! I get another one drawn on Tuesday morning to ensure that it's progressing properly. I will keep you updated on this as I find out!!! Thanks for all your prayers!

Update After Transfer

Well, here I am, nearly a week late on updating you all on the transfer. :( So sorry. So, last Wednesday we went down to Atlanta for our transfer. What a day! I was so excited! I was a little nervous, but more excited than anything. We got to the dr's office at noon, one hour before the transfer. P met us there and we actually ran into her in the elevator as we were heading up. That was cool! They took us back pretty quick and had us sit in the transfer waiting room. Well, it had a "name" for the room, but I can't remember. It's not important. The embryologist brought in the picture of the two embryos she picked out and explained what was what and why she picked them. Then, we waited...... I had to have a full bladder at the transfer so I was sipping on water for that hour, but had to be careful, because I didn't want to get my bladder so full that I was about to explode on the table! lol I did very well and didn't get to that point, but definitely had to pee! P & I chatted a good bit during our waiting time. Shane read some of his book and fell asleep. hehe Unfortunately, K couldn't come, because he had a cold and they didn't want him around me. :( Transfer time was here and we went into the room. As we waited for them to come in and get started, we said a prayer. There was a tv monitor in the room that had a pic of the two embryos. It was so neat as I lied there looking at them. They're just two circles of cells right now that you can't see with the naked eye, but they are life that God takes and molds into a little person! As they did the transfer, it was very quick. Didn't take but just a few minutes. It felt less uncomfortable than a pap smear, so that was nice. They inserted the embryos in via a tube & syringe (no needle-just attached to the tube to push them in) and voula! They're in and it's up to them ( and God most of all) to attach. I am now in a waiting game as we won't know anything til the first blood test. I go this coming Friday morning at 8am to take that and we should know that afternoon of the results. That will tell us if the transfer took and the embryos attached. I will then take another one the next week to ensure that it's progressing properly. I will update you all after I get those results!!!

Transfer Time!!!

I can hardly believe that it's that time!! Tomorrow, Wednesday May 13th, Shane and I are leaving around 7am to head down to Atlanta. We will meet P&K for lunch and then on to the Dr's office. We get there at 1pm and the transfer is to happen at 2pm. We all, of course, are very excited! I am a little nervous, but it's to be expected. It's a good kind of nervous. They will be transferring two embryos giving a higher chance of at least one taking. Yes, there is a chance for twins (or even more than that-yikes), but not likely more than two. :) With two embryos, there's actually a higher chance for just one, but you never know! Whatever God does, I'm good with. The transfer is painless and quick, according to what I've been told. :) So, I'm not concerned. My goal will be to get in bed early tonight to get a good night's rest so that my body is in an optimal state and then rest on the way home and the rest of the evening tomorrow night. Bedrest is not required, but anything I can do to possibly help is good. Be praying for us and I can't wait to update you all!! About 10-12 days after the transfer they'll do a blood test, then a few more days another blood test and it will be then that we know that it's taking. Can't wait til tomorrow!!

Trip to Atlanta #2

So, last Friday, May 1st, we had our second trip to Atlanta for this cycle. The main reason for these appointments are to do ultrasounds to ensure that the medications are working properly. Thankfully, all looked good for me. The appointment was at 10am, so afterwards we had the rest of the day. P was unable to be there because she was at the BEACH!! So not right! lol Just kidding. I am so glad she got to go and have some fun with her girlfriends. What a therapeutic trip that was I'm sure! There is nothing like girl-time! So, Shane and I were away from home and childless, so we decided to make a date day. We went to eat at The Cheesecake Factory, which as always was DELICIOUS!! I am a cheesecake fanatic! However, I am very picky about the flavors I choose because some of the cheesecake is very rich and/or has too many flavors mixed in. I have chosen the Banana Cream Cheesecake in the past, which is YUMMY!!! Just perfect! I decided to do something different and chose the Chocolate Coconut Cream Cheesecake, since I am also a coconut fanatic. Well, it was good, but almost too rich. Will have to go with something else next time I think. :) We then set off to see "Fast and Furious". Very good, in my opinion, plus I got to watch one of my fave muscle men in action! haha Yea, I am a Vin Diesel fan for sure! Then, back home it was. It was a great day for us!
So, this week they will be doing the egg retrievals and fertilization, which means next week (week of May 11-15) we will be doing the embryo transfer!!! Yay!!!! I'm so excited!! To think that that God will be using me to help bring a child into this world for a wonderful couple so deserving and wanting of a baby! I just can't wait to see P&K holding their new baby (or babies hehe) in their arms for the first time!!! Wow-what an awesome moment that will be!
Love to all and thanks for reading! Will be back soon to hopefully say that transfer is done!!! Please pray as we are going into this last phase and transfer! I have full faith that God will beat any odds that are put against us! I ask for your unity in faith with me! Don't ask that He do this, pray victoriously with me as though He's already done this!!!

Trip to ATL #1

Tomorrow (Tuesday April 21st) we are off to Atlanta for an appointment for a baseline ultrasound. This is over a week after starting my Lupron shots and they want to make sure it's doing it's job, which is stopping ovulation. I don't know if it does anything else. lol So, Shane and I will be out early in the morning for our 10:30am appointment. It'll be nice seeing P tomorrow. We haven't seen each other in a few months since the original cycle back in January. We'll go to lunch with her to catch up. She's so wonderful! I hate we won't get to see K, though. Duty calls. We'll be back tomorrow evening and then I'll get to add more medicines to my agenda. :) You know, no matter how many times I have given myself that Lupron shot, it just doesn't get any easier. Some nights it's not too big of a deal and other nights, like last night, I feel like it's my first time and I just stand there hesitating and frozen as though my mind can't transfer the signal to my hand. It really doesn't hurt, not everytime at least. Sometimes it doesn't hurt at all and other times it does hurt, but it's so quick and temporary. I mean, HELLO Alyson, I've had natural childbirth enduring hours of back to back contractions that are far more painful than anything I've ever felt, yet I'm a wimp when I go to give myself a silly little injection. hehe Oh, the joys!
Well, just 3 more weeks til transfer!! So close!!!

Moving Forward

After the first egg donor didn't work out, we were back to searching for another one. P&K finally got a few more profiles and liked several of them. They settled on one, in which the dr's office raved about and has also been a repeat donor which means we know her body should react properly. It all has moved so quick already! Once they picked her, we got our new medicine schedule. What was cool is that when I called the dr's office to tell them that I was starting a new pack of pills (I returned to BCP's after the first cycle) the day after the egg donor started her pack, which put us basically on the same schedule! God works so awesomely! We are now looking at an embryo transfer date of May 11th or 13th. I began my Lupron shots yesterday, Sat April 11th. We are all very excited and feel good about this cycle. What an awesome journey to come!!

So We Begin

With surrogacy, there's a lot involved. It's not as simple as deciding to become a surrogate and then getting pregnant with someone else's baby. There's a lot of preliminary testing that needs to be done. All parties have to go through a series of testings. One included tons of blood tests in which I swear I was just donating blood! I think the lady had at least 20 vials to put the blood in. Yikes! All I can say is you better not have a problem with people poking, prodding and touching you, because they do! Way more than a normal pregnancy. :) But, I had no problem with it. All good. I even had to have a psychological exam. I have to say, although I know I'm not crazy and don't have any psychological issues, I was still a little nervous. I mean, what if I said something that sounded wrong or was clearly nervous? We all know how psychiatrists and psychologists are! Then, I had to take a 500 question personality test (in which my husband fell asleep in the waiting room during this lol). I felt like I was taking my boards test for nursing again! I got many of the same questions over and over again but worded differently and many of them had more than one answer. lol Thank God I passed and she found me to be sane. :) Let me clarify that doing all of this was truly not a problem. Not always fun, but not a problem. I know this is what God wants me to do so I will do what I need to. Once P & K decided on their egg donor (well, first egg donor at least), the cycling process began. They have to get me and the egg donor synced (or the intended mother in cases where she has viable eggs of her own). They sync us first with birth control pills. Then we start an evolving list of medications. Of course I get on prenatal vitamins, in which I'll stay on for the whole pregnancy. I then start the Lupron. This is a series of shots I have to give myself every night! The first night I did this, I got the shot ready to go, alcoholed my belly, pinched some fat and.....nothing. I stood there for what felt like 5 minutes, but probably 30 seconds. My mind wouldn't let my hand move towards the belly. It's like I was frozen. haha Finally, I talked myself into and did it. After a few days, it got easier, although very annoying. Then comes the estrace. Oh boy, this one was even more annoying. Insertion with no applicator...that's all I'll say. :(~ I had to wake up at least 10 minutes before I wanted to get up to do this. 10 minutes isn't a lot, but when you're sleeping, 10 minutes feels like an hour sometimes! I also had to add the vivelle, which is a patch. That one I could do fine, although with every removal and reapplication my belly, thighs and bahooky looked like they were branded with a squares! I had one or two more meds I had to add on, however that's when we found out our egg donor was not going to work out.
One thing I haven't mentioned are the trips. Because our intended parents live in Atlanta and their reproductive specialists of course are there, we travel there until we get a positive pregnancy, good ultrasounds and the doctor releases us to use our own OBs. During the time I'm taking these meds, Shane and I traveled down several times for them to check and make sure these meds were doing their job, which thankfully they were. However, once we found out about the egg donor, all meds stopped and back to BCP's to regulate my body again. Then we played the waiting game and P & K began their search for another egg donor. We were all disappointed, however we also knew that God is in control and she did not work out for a reason. We knew that God had the perfect person out there for us to come around at the right time.
More to come.....

How We Met

When I decided to become a surrogate mother, I hardly knew where to start. There is so much information in the world of surrogacy and it was so overwhelming! I started out putting my name in with an agency. Agencies are often easier to deal with, especially for first time surros, because they do all the work for you. I was all for that! So, that's where I started. I also joined a surrogate message board, which was and is wonderful! It has taught me a lot and you meet so many people on there with lots of advice! I began to personally advertise myself, outside of the agency that is, and began getting ad responses, but nothing was coming of it. Around August 2008 I began talking to another surrogate who was out of Georgia. She led me to a wonderful lawyer who could help me with my individual needs in surrogacy should I match with a couple independently as well as even possibly matching me with a couple. As I spoke to this lawyer (I will refer to her as R), I was very impressed. She was very kind and compassionate and I could tell she was very sincere. She liked what I had to tell her and decided she wanted to meet me in person as she had some couples that were looking for surrogates but she wanted to get to know me personally so she could find the best match for me. Well, she did just that. She told me about this couple, P & K, that she felt would work well with me, or visa versa. :) They had just contacted her very recently that they wanted to start looking for a surrogate. As she told me about their situation, I knew that they had to be the ones for us. I just felt it in my heart. After my first meeting with R, we set another meeting with Shane, myself, R & a couple or two. Turns out, the first and only couple she had available that day was P & K. It was awkward as we didn't know where to start. lol However, once we got started it was amazing. I knew within 10 minutes of our hour and a half long conversation that we would be "working" together. Sure enough, once we had talked about everything we wanted to talk about, we agreed to work together and get started. It was a total God-thing: I never heard from the agency, none of the ad responses worked out, I was put in contact with R at the same time that P & K began contacting her and R thought we were a perfect match! How cool and awesome is that!? I love how God works!!

So what is surrogacy all about??

I want to tell you more about my journey so far, but I thought it might be helpful to first explain surrogacy. I know most of us have "heard" of surrogacy and in a nutshell know that a woman carries a baby for another woman right? Yes, but there's so much more to it and I get lots of questions (which I don't mind by the way) and thought I would try to explain it to some extent.

There are many aspects to surrogacy, but I'm just going to explain my situation and the choice I've gone with. I have chosen to be a Gestational Surrogate. What this means is that I will carry the baby, but have no genetic link. My intended mother (aka, the mother in which this baby will be carried for) unfortunately has no viable eggs of her own, so she has to find an egg donor. However, her husband will be the biological father. In this situation, what will happen is they will retrieve the egg donor's egg (she will be anonymous and never personally know the intended parents in this situation) and the father's sperm and fertilize in the lab. Once they get two good embryos, they will then transfer them into my uterus. I am simply the oven.

No, there is no sex between husband and surrogate!! At least not in normal surrogate situations. lol It's sad I have to say that, because it does happen that way unfortunately, but I can only answer for my choices. :)

Well, this one was short, sweet and to the point, but I hope answered some questions for you, at least pertaining to me. I will be back soon to tell you more about my journey!!

Hello! My name is Alyson and this is my first blog ever. :) To introduce myself, I am a 28-year old mother of two and married to my wonderful husband for 9 years, yesterday. My life is very sporatic and ever-changing. In the 9 years of being married, we can say we've done many different things. In the process God has shown us and taught us a lot! We have grown in Him and learned how to live in the freedom that He gives us! I never plan out tomorrow for it's in His hands and He may call us to do something totally out of the blue and we're open to say yes and go! For a year and a half, my family moved out of our house into a camper on a Christian camp in which my husband worked as the assistant director. What a great time we had and a lot God had to teach us. Near the end of our time at the camp, in which God called us all in different directions, God began to talk to me about being a surrogate mom. I will get to that in a minute. I'm gonna go back a little:

When Shane and I decided to start trying to have a baby, I figured we'd have no problem. I was wrong. It took us a year and two miscarriages to finally get pregnant with Roman. Hmmm, some of you might say, "Only one year? Who cares? We've been trying for years and we can't get pregnant." Trust me....I know. That was nothing compared to what many endure, but God had to teach me patience and how to trust in Him and gave me a very minute feeling of what it's like to not be able to have a baby. We were scared we would be that couple who couldn't have babies. Thank you Jesus that He gave us Roman. [Now, to go back a little further, in my late teens and early 20's I worked as a C.N.A in the Labor & Delivery part of the hospital for about three years and then as an LPN in an OB/GYN office for six months. It was there that I learned what I needed to know to have my own children.] After Roman, I found out I was pregnant with Seth one year later, which was a surprise. So, obviously my fertility issue was a short, one time deal. With my boys, I had wonderful, problem-free pregnancies. I loved being pregnant! Sure, I had the normal aches, pains, fatigue, morning sickness, swelling and the list goes on. However, I still loved it all! Those things are normal and I was perfectly fine with it. I was having my babies!! What better blessing could God have given me!? Then came the deliveries. I made up in my mind that I was going to have natural, drug free births. Once again, God blessed me and my decision and determination, for it was through conviction from Him that I made that decision anyway. Both of their deliveries were problem free and very smooth. Did it hurt? YES!!!!! Ha! Very bad, but I knew that was what I wanted and I'd do it over and over again that way. Experiencing childbirth in that way for me was the most wonderful thing! It was later that I realized just how truly blessed I was. Watching my sisters have much harder times with their deliveries was what made me realize that. Their deliveries were not so smooth. I began to think about all the deliveries I had seen while working in L&D and also realized that my experience was rare. I LOVED giving birth! I told my husband that if I could have babies and just give them away, I would! Little did I know what that statement would mean later.

Now, not long after Seth was born, I just happened to read an article on surrogacy. It was very interesting and my knowledge on surrogacy before I read that was very small. It really struck me and I thought that maybe that would be something I'd be interested in one day, but it stopped there. A few years later, bringing us back to the ending of our time at camp, I came across surrogacy again, which made me start thinking about it. I began to really do some research and then took it to my husband. As we talked about it and I helped him understand it, we began to realize that maybe it was something I should do. The more we talked & thought about it, we decided to pray about it. What God showed me was that my childbirth experiences were gifts and blessings! He showed me that gifts and blessings are not given for us to hold onto, but to turn around and use for others. I began to realize the selfishness I would have if I did not use this for someone else, so I decided to jump in and go for it. My husband will tell you that he doesn't understand the feeling I have, but he knows that if God is leading me to do it, then I must and he is in full support of it. God has also put him at full peace about it.

Back in September, God put us in touch with a wonderful couple who we are working with and will carry their baby. I will be back soon to start talking about this great journey.....be sure to tune in. :)