Sad News

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted here. I wanted you all to know that we have put our IVF/Surrogacy Journey on hold, indefinitely. There was/is alot going on in my life, as well as in my surrogates life, and I don't feel it is the best time to proceed. I will continue to update periodically.
Thank you all for your love and support

NEW JOB!

Well its been a while since I updated and I am starting a new job! I will be working as a police dispatcher for Waco. I am excited about it, I think it will be a great change for me... I will keep you all posted on how it goes, I start there Monday. Nothing new on the surrogacy front, things are moving slow as usual, I haven't talked to Janene much lately, things are hectic for us both I guess... Still no word from the lawyer either, I am gonna have to light a fire under him. Will update more later

Nothing new to report

Sorry I haven't posted lately but there hasn't been anything going on. I still haven't talked with the lawyer yet, I will call him tomorrow. I need to get a draft to Janene, so we can get her a lawyer and get things rolling on contract signing. So things have been pretty slow as of late. I have been ebaying like crazy here lately. I have about 40 things up for auction currently, I am really enjoying it. I have also taken up basket making. I did one for a friends baby shower and enjoyed it so much I decided to continue doing it. Take a gander at my auctions if ya want to, any suggestions on my baskets are welcomed by the way! Well that's about all from me for now... Til next time~

Well we are back from Sea World!

Our Sea World trip went well. We had a blast, the kids had a good time too, LOL ;-).... If our surrogacy works, or shall I say when,LOL, this will probably be the last vacation we take for a while so it was nice that it was a fun one. A little rain for about 15-20 minutes and that was it! We were sure we were gonna get rained out, but God smiled on us. Glad to be home though, and trying to check in with Janene to see how things are there. I called her but didn't get an answer so maybe they left after all. I am gonna call again in the morning and see what happens. Nothing new on the surrogacy front. I will try to contact my lawyer this week to see where we are as far as a draft. We still need to find Janene a lawyer so we will talk about that this week too, as long as she is available due to the weather. Man that hurricane did a number on FL! I am still trying to get myself together as far as what I want to do. I have been kicking around a few ideas with hubby, and I think I have somethings on the horizon that I want to pursue. Well I know I do, I just have to see if they will be lucrative or not,LOL... I will keep you all posted on that as soon as a definite decision is made, but it is looking promising!

Gotta get some sleep now, school day for the boys!

Change of plans

Well my trip to Georgia is officially cancelled. The Hurricane is coming to close to Janene's house and she maybe evacuating as well, so we will reschedule for a different day... WAAAAH! I can't believe this! I was sooo looking forward to seeing her and her family! Oh well, I guess we will have to wait til after the holidays now....Shoot! Nothing new on the surrogacy front. Well I did talk to a GA lawyer about doing a pre-birth order for us and FORGET IT! They want an incredible amount of money, its ridiculous! So we are going with our original plan, if it ain't broke don't fix it right?

Later Taters...

Another step forward

Well I have bronchitis, and I will live! LOL... I have an update on the surrogacy front. I talked to a great local therapist that I take a family member to, and he can AND will perform the MMPI for me! I am so happy about that! I didn't want to have to drive 2 hours for a looong test, thats alot to put on my surrogate for a short trip so local testing is such a blessing! I will be seeing Janene in 4 DAYS! I am soo excited! Haven't heard from my lawyer lately so I think I will call him to get a status on things... That's about it for now.

Thank you! E-BAY

I know its been a few days but EBAY has consumed my life! LOL.. I have been selling things left and right! I am so glad too, because all extra money goes to the "Baby Fund".. Well its official......WE ARE GOING TO SEE JANENE! I am so excited, I can hardly wait, we are leaving in 7 days! I have two other special friends (You know who you are) that live in Georgia as well, so I will be going to visit them too! I am so looking forward to this trip. This is the first time the wonderful hubby and kids and I are getting away together since last year, so its time anyway.. Wow I hope we all really get along great like we do on the phone! Its always weird meeting for the first time, but I am sure it will all be ok. I will keep ya posted on the trip!

Can't sleep AGAIN

Yes, I am still up, thankfully this time it isn't from stress! My allergies are kickin my hiney! so I am all stuffed up in the head and with a runny nose, yeah I know TMI, sorry! Things are quiet on the surrogacy front, I have to continue charting my ovulation with the OPK, so this oughta be fun fun!! Gotta go stock up on those, and pregnancy test for when we have the transfer! (I am sooo optimistic!)I only talked to Janene for a hot second today, I am so busy from selling things on EBAY! I am doing so good, I hope to keep it up! For those of you who want to take a gander at my wares,LOL my name is 1stop_shopper! Maybe I have something you want, who knows??? Well I am gonna go and attempt sleep again, maybe I will have success this time...

Consult with the RE

I had my meeting with the RE today, and let me say I LOVE HIM!!! He reassured me on so many levels and now I really cant wait to get started! He said my chances are about 60% since I am using a surrogate, and a 50% chance of a take home baby. I thought those were good chances. He gave me a tour of the place, and talked to for about 2 hrs! He answered all of my questions and had ideas for the protocol for me to use for optimal success. I cant wait to get started! I want to cycle NOW! The bad news is since we aren't starting until next year, he doesn't need to see Janene until a few months before so she isn't coming here until January! WAAAAH! We may try to get her out here earlier just for a visit, or maybe we will go to GA?? I will think about this some more, and let you all know what we decide!

Today was a good day

Well alot has happened in the last 2 days. My sister offered to be our surrogate. This is a huge deal. I have been going through IVF now for a few years, so I never expected to hear those words from her. Ultimately, we decided not to use her, and continue with our surrogate, for several reasons. And yes, I did share this with my surrogate, and she was ok, especially since there isn't any bad news for her!!!! :-). I saw my lawyer today, and we came to an agreement that we both can live with, and thanks to another wonderful surro I think we are on easy street from here on out as far as delivery and insurance, now we just gotta make it to TESTING, and MY FSH! EEK! I go in Monday to see the RE, wish me luck and lots of prayers guys!

Stressing Over Decisions

Felt the need to post although I don't have much to report at this time. I talked to my lawyer today and I asked if the rough draft is ready for me to review. I am hoping to hear back from him tomorrow sometime. I also have a few other things going on but I will talk more about that later. I did sell some items on ebay today, and I have a bunch more listed so that is cool.. As I said I am gonna post more as I have more to tell. Hopefully I will have good news by the end of this week.

Could this be it?

Well Janene and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning researching insurance options. A broker emailed us and gave us a few options, 2 were the medical health cards. We researched one of these further and we are almost positive that we are gonna go with that one! It has great coverage and covers some meds that we would need as well as a few IVF doctors, I am actually thinking of getting it for myself! We still are going to talk to the maternity card people as well as the people here to weigh our options, but things are looking promising today. So, now we wait to talk to these people tomorrow and then we wait to hear from the lawyer and we are good to go! I have my consult with the RE on the 23rd, and after I find out how they do things, I will book Janene's flight to come here! WOOOHOOO, so we will be meeting next month, I am sooo excited! Wish us luck with all of the steps in process!

Nothing New

Well nothing new to report today, just want to get in the habit of updating each day. I haven't talked to Janene yet today but I am sure I will later... It's a nice day here today, so I think maybe the kids and I will go on a bike ride.. I hope Janene and her crew are fairing better than the other day with the hurricane. I will update more later...

can't Sleep

I got an email from the lawyer saying he is working on my contract this weekend and he would call me when he had a draft for me! WOOOOHOOOOO! That makes me sooo happy... For some reason I cannot sleep tonight... I am very positive that Janene is "the ONE" for us, but the road ahead seems sooo bumpy that I just don't know how we are gonna make it to the end.. She is so wonderful about supporting me and cheering me up when I start to despair. She said as much trouble as we are having with the insurance and all the bumps in general that we are gonna have the easiest pregnancy ever! From her mouth to God's ears..... OK I am gonna try to get some sleep, I have a busy day ahead of me! Nite all!

Contracts and lawyers

On the contract issues, things were a mess (notice I said WERE). We had to decide if we wanted Neeners (my nickname for her) to deliver in GA or TX. We ultimately went with TX for several reasons. The main one is that GA law isn't that great for surrogacy. TX on the other hand is awesome. Also the contract phase is MUCH easier here, we don't have to have lawyers in different states and then have them do birth orders, we will have all that taken care of once we sign contracts here. Getting a lawyer to be on the same page as us was another story. Most didn't understand that we agreed and there was no need for negotiations, then there was the no insurance we aren't comfortable with the what if's of that. It was too hard to write all that in a contract I guess. So I prayed alot and leaned on Janene and my wonderful friends from a great support group (HI HENS!!!) and the answer to my prayers appeared. He is a wonderful lawyer that is local to me and can you guess what his last name is?? ANGEL! How cool is that??!!!?? So he is hard at work on the contracts, and we are hard at work looking for insurance...We have heard good things so far about the maternity card and different medical health plan cards but we don't want to get scammed so we are both researching those and still looking into traditional insurance... Keep us in your prayers that we find something good! Til next time..

Oldest son's birthday Pretty Close huh!

Today is my oldest son's birthday. He is 11 years old. He was 5 days shy of 2 when his brother made his entrance into this world. As much as I tried I couldn't get him to really like his brother,LOL.... He did like to use him as a speed bump and to play wrestling with him even though he was just a few months old. I look back in amazement on how much he has grown up and how he now fiercely protects his little brother. In this past year he has matured a lot, and he has already hit that preteen stage, I shudder to think about the little girls that will soon darken my door wanting him to take them out... They cant have my baby! :-D

My baby's birthday

Today is my youngest son's birthday. He is 9 years old. Where does the time go?? It seems like just yesterday I was walking the birthing center trying to give birth.... It is also my mom's birthday, some gift huh? I was lucky enough to have her with me on this day. She told me not to have the baby on her birthday, but I couldn't resist *wink wink* I am so proud of the little man he is growing up to be.

Update (Long)

Alot has happened in the last month. I have gotten my niece settled in, and we have chosen a surrogate. She is a wonderful, married woman with 5 beautiful children. She lives in Georgia and we haven't stopped talking since that first email a month ago. She was so great during my time of stress with my niece, she was patient and we just talked about all kinds of things in addition to surrogacy. We agreed on everything contract wise right off the bat, which made things even nicer. We have had our share of struggles already. Since Janene doesn't have medical insurance at this time, we are trying to find her a policy that will cover her pregnancy and that has been next to impossible. We haven't given up yet though. *wink* We still have a few tricks up our sleeves and we aren't going down without a fight!

Out of Town

I had a family emergency and I had to go to VIRGINIA! I wont go into alot of detail, but I have inherited a 16 yo teenager! My niece "K" is coming to live with me. I hope I can be a good influence on her and help her get back on the path she needs to be on to become a productive citizen and respectable woman. On the surrogacy front things are looking good still, I have been telling everyone that I will get back to them when I get home (should be in a few days) and most everyone is ok with that, which is a load off my mind....Gotta get back to my emails now!

Overwhelmed by replies!

OMG! I received sooo many replies to my ad. It was amazing. Some I discounted right away for various reasons, but quite a few were very good candidates! This was soo hard. I initially said that I only wanted a candidate that was in TX so I can keep an eye on her. This stems from our last arrangement where our surro was several states away. Well, I received an email from a candidate that is NOT in TX, but she said she thinks she is a great candidate so I emailed her. Guess what? SHE WAS! I cant believe it, this woman is so great, we clicked right off! I will have to see where this goes but it is definitely promising...

I'm Baaack! (LONG update)

Well after a loooong hiatus, I am back! I have been talking to my first recipient, (I will after this refer to her as "J") and she is wanting to do another cycle for a sibling. She asked me if I would donate to her again since she is not comfortable using her frosties at this time. I said of course. Well we got to talking and we decided that there was just too much drama and bad blood from the old clinic so we would try to find a new one that was comparable to them in price and stats.. I researched it and what do ya know? There is a clinic right here in good ole TX!!! about 2 hrs from me..WOOOHOOO! So I called "J" and she decided to do another cycle. She asked me if I had thought about doing another shared cycle so I could have embryos and I said yes but DH is undecided from the last talks we had. Well since then he has warmed up to the idea, AS LONG AS we take our time and get to know the new surro candidate before we do any transfers!!! I have already put an ad up on SMO to get started with finding a surrogate. I am so excited that we are giving it another shot. I have the most wonderful husband in the world. This clinic is the best. There will be alot of new things here so that is great to me, I love starting fresh literally. They have great success rates, and they only do blast transfers. If you are over 35 they will transfer 3 and under 35 they will only do 2, which I am totally cool with. Also since I am going to have a surrogate before the transfer this will be my first fresh transfer! I am getting my ducks in a row right now! More later!