Contract signed

Signed. Sealed. Delivered.

Please enjoy this GLEE video of the same name.

It's amazing that the anxiety I had a few days ago has just melted away. A great way to end the week and I'm looking forward to my skype date with my IPs discussing the IFV details.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Contracts and the Nitty Gritty

I've passed the screening. We've been matched. My body has been medically approved. Now we negotiate the contract.

The word itself, contract, sounds so cold and business like. 

Obviously, I understand the necessity of it all. Let's be honest, most surrogates aren't legal junkies. I would assume a select few enjoy reading business/legal documents for fun, which just makes those 37 pages (give or take a few) of legal jargon painful. But you can bet your sweet little fanny I read every word of that thing while diligently adding my concerns, comments and edits throughout the day. Justin - well he read through it in less than an hour and e-mailed, "Looks good to me."

Yesterday, I got a little down. I was frustrated. Honestly, I felt dirty. I felt guilt. I thought that something in my concerns or edits could or might offend my IPs. I had not expected that a stack of papers would make me feel like that. I shouldn't have allowed myself to feel like that, but I suppose my great-grandparent's Irish Catholic guilt may run a little thick in my veins. 

I'm excited for the end of this week. My hope is that it will be finished and signed and we can move on to the more personal side of things. 

My Journey Coordinator

I met my journey coordinator today.

She is the third "go-to" person I've had at Circle and will be my journey "overseer" for the rest of our adventure.

We went over all of the upcoming paperwork and generalized time lines. I hung up thinking my notes were still a little hazy with the details. She speaks very quickly. As I reflect I have to smile as this thought pops into my head. If I had trouble keeping up with her New England accent, I wonder how my London IPs did.

That thought deepened. Somehow, Americans went from having their British accents, mutating to an Eastern accent, and then continuing to evolve across the US with such different dialects.

In just 15 days Justin and I will be flying out for our medical clearance. I'm sure time will fly. Maybe I should start packing now...

Medical Screening Scheduled

They've scheduled me for June 13th!
I'm very excited to "really" start making things happen.

So let me explain a little of what is happening on the "back side" of our adventure.

As you know I've met my IPs. We have been conversing via e-mail. While I love e-mail, it makes it fairly difficult to cultivate a relationship - but we're doing our best.

I now have a journey coordinator. This is the 3rd person that helps me through the surrogacy process and she will be my, for lack of a better term, assistant for the rest of our adventure.

Of course, I would love to bore you will explaining all the paperwork - travel questions, a surrogacy book (literally 33 pages - it would have been nice to get that week 1), more medical records requests, and so on. LOTS of e-mails... but I love hearing my phone's little "ping!"

Now that we have a date for the medical screening and I have a basic timeline for meds and transfer, I need to start training.

"For what?" you may ask.

For this: http://www.godirtygirl.com/


My friend, Meagan, talked me into this months ago, and I just didn't know how the timeline would turn out. I've got one month. I want to do it. I need to do it. I haven't trained nearly enough for it.

Good news: it's non-competitive (which isn't really my style, but I digress), not timed and only for women. I could walk the thing, if I wanted.

So, when Justin scoffed, "5K? You can't do that. You aren't in shape to do that..." my will power was lit with fire and I think that made me actually decide to do it.

Did I mention it was for a good cause? Proceeds go to breast cancer research. You should find a race near you.

Just a little bit of crazy

I finished my MMPI test!

I found my eyes crossing while answering the questions. Rightly so - 338 true or false questions. That was the revised version - revised from 576 questions. It was difficult to wrap my brain around the phrasing of some of the questions. Who uses double negatives? Geesh...


I've got to work out a few kinks with the medical records and we'll be meeting/reading the profile of our IP's very soon!

The Adventure Begins

I'm on the cusp of being "approved" from the screening process. Barring the psychologist confirming me crazy or my husband saying something incredibly embarrassing about me during the interview with the social worker that would send up a red flag, I think I'm good to go. Note: he will say something that I deem as embarrassing, but I don't think it will be anything damning...

I'm past the stage that requires me to refresh my gmail account every 5-10 minutes with hopes of a reply or a new "to do" list.

Now I wait.

From what I've noticed, many surrogacy blogs begin a little too late to really understand what the beginning of the "process" entails.

Let me tell you.

Last Monday night, April 22, I applied with Circle Surrogacy (a very long application, by the way). By Tuesday night, my junk folder had been notified that I was accepted for pre-screening. I found out on Wednesday when Jeni, the surrogacy coordinator, called me. Do you know that feeling when the blood in your body stops and turns cold and a bit tingly? That's what I felt when I saw I missed a phone call from an unfamiliar number. It was unfamiliar, but I knew, generally, who it was. 

I will now condense what I experienced and the preliminary process until now:

• 4/24 - Phone meet and greet with the surrogacy coordinator. Sent family pictures, copy of DL and insurance.  

• 4/25 - Sent completed a welcome packet (similar to the initial application but with releases for med. records) AND won the "most organized" status for the day (just let me brag a little, I rarely receive that prize...). 

• 4/26 - I then was tasked with an insurance application with the agency my OB clearance form. 

• 4/29 - Mailed my personal insurance booklet to HQ.

• 4/30 - Appointment with OB. "You're cleared! Oh, but I stopped delivering babies..." That is not necessarily a direct quote, but you get the picture. So, I've been cleared by my [former] doctor. Next...

• 5/1 -  Waiting on prenatal records. Chatted with Jeni. Picked her brain. She is so much easier to get information out of than those surrogacy forums... Also, she told me I should probably  definitely tell my parents as quickly as possible. Planned visit with parents

• 5/2 -  Told my boss about this ensuing adventure. Positive feedback. She even teared up a bit. 

• 5/3 - Social worker phone interview set. Justin and I will both complete this. My interview will be 2-2.5 hours.  Justin's will be about half an hour... Apparently, guys have far less to say.

So, I am now in the screening phase. I will speak to the social worker who will create a profile for me and my family. I will, at some point in the near future, complete a psychological exam via Skype with a psychologist from MA, HQ for the agency. I will then get matched with my intended parents. My IPs.

Nervous?    A little bit.

About injections, IFV, meeting the IPs? No

About raising the blood pressure, stress and anxiety levels of my parents? Yes. Definitely.