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Jumping Right In!

Mike, the kids and I are about to start - errr continue? - a very exciting and special journey.  We made the decision early last summer to look into becoming a surrogate family (gestational carrier but I'll get into that more later) and after months and months of waiting, medical screenings, psychological screenings and legal documents we have officially be approved and are truly beginning this adventure!  I will backtrack in time, and I promise to catch you all up over what has been happening over the last months and how we got to this point.  But for now - cliff notes!

We are working with an incredible agency that without, I don't think we would be half as comfortable as we are with the entire process of growing a child for another family.  Through them we have been matched with some lovely Intended Parents (IP's for short) that we could not be any more excited to be on this journey with.  They are unable to carry a child of their own but were able to retrieve healthy embryos with their own eggs and sperm.  Which is where I come in.  In about a month, if all goes to plan, we will implant one of their embryos in my uterus and I will hopefully be carrying a healthy, full term baby for them.  Again - I'll be breaking this down way more over the next few weeks/months.

Mike and I were very fortunate that we were able to conceive without much trouble, I very much enjoyed most of both pregnancies and I was able to have text book deliveries the way I wanted them.  Ever since I was pregnant with Kendall I became fascinated with all things pregnancy and babies. Internet research is not the best way to be learning about anything (Wait, if it's on the internet it has to be true right!?) but I found myself reading endless articles and for some reason, especially on women's struggles with pregnancy.  I was so touched by people's stories and their willingness to be open about such a personal, yet common, topic that is still taboo to discuss out in the open for some reason.  I think part of this curiosity also came from knowing about friends struggles and wanting to know how to better support them and not feel the guilt I felt for not having the same troubles.  I'll say this over and over throughout these blogs, but infertility is something that needs to become socially acceptable to be talked about.  I won't quote statistics, but there is an overwhelming amount of women that struggle with infertility.  I'm going to give a shout out to one of my favorite podcasts that is a couple currently undergoing IVF and I think even if you have no intention of having children, it is informative, entertaining and REAL.  So check out Matt and Doree's Eggcellent Adventure :)

I'm open to any and all questions throughout our journey and will be writing soon to give you more information.  So... stay tuned!


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