Full Steam Ahead

A little over a month since our last post and what a month and a few days it has been.

I really don't know where to start....It feels like months has passed since we decided to start our journey of having a family through surrogacy. Fair enough it has been five months since we both agreed that we indeed did want to be dads but only a month since we chose to proceed with Surrogacy India in Mumbai.

The month of February was eventful; we had planned for months to visit the NSW North Coast with two other couples and their five children combined for a week long holiday on the beach. Long days at cafes, fresh fish, swimming and building sand castles with the kids. Bliss.

The reality was somewhat different. We had rain. Lots and lots of rain verging on monsoonal!

The most rain in over two years in fact. This made relaxing somewhat difficult. The kids were stressed and had cabin fever which in turn gave us cabin fever. We still managed to have a good time but five kids under five indoors for the best part of a week was a good lesson for us both. We still love each other and our friends after the week so it could not have been that bad.

Our God Son turned four and had his long awaited pirate and princess party. It was great fun and he was adorable in his pirate outfit as were all the other kiddies. On a sadder note, my uncle passed away at the age of 52 which was awful news for my family, mum especially. My mums life growing up in the country NSW town of Dubbo was super tough. Alcoholism amongst other nasty factors meant her childhood was not carefree and easy as ours was and that which I plan for our child. Mum had the foresight to leave Dubbo at an early age and start a better life for herself for which my sisters and I are eternally grateful. Unfortunately her two brothers did not leave and their lives has been one filled with alcohol, abuse and hardship. Whenever I return there I'm amazed and the difference between their lives and ours.

Uncle Peters funeral was very sad and he has six children with three under 12 and I felt especially sad for them.

Back to baby news and other things baby related; I have told my boss at work that we are planning on having a child(ren) of our own and she is over the moon. When I told her the response was, 'I thought something was in the pipeline;. I've applied for annual leave from the 30th July (when I leave for Mumbai) for a week and when she asked if I had any plans I was very coy at first. Lisa knows that this is something we have talked about for a long while and she and her partner have been keen for us to proceed. I now have someone at work to chat with and share our excitement. I've already discussed with her 'paternity leave' and coming back to work part time and she is very supportive. What a lucky boy I am!

We still haven't told our parents as we want to wait until we know we are pregnant before doing so. Both mums are going to be over the moon and it is hard not to say anything to them. We did have a celebratory glass of pink bubbles with our best friend the other day to celebrate our egg donor choice and have decided that every milestone in this journey will be celebrated with bubbles. We are so blessed to have supportive people in our lives. We both really want to tell our respective siblings now, but we'll hold off until closer to the date we travel.

As I said above, I've arranged flights to Mumbai with Qantas flying out of Sydney on the 30th July and arriving into Mumbai during the very early hours of 31 July - 2.40am.

We'll be in India for a week. Enough time for our semen samples, egg retireval, IVF and to meet our surrogate, her family and be in the same country when our baby(s) are created. This will also mean our anticipated two week wait (2WW) the time between egg transfer and the news of your pregancy result will only be one week in duration by the time we return to Sydney.

We have also chosen our Indian egg donors with the help of Dr S. Our first choice is an experienced donor who has cycled for intending parents before and our second choice is in the process of cycling for the first time now. After reading other IPs blogs and the financial side of this stage up to implantation (around 14000AUD) we have decided we will only proceed with an experienced donor. The Drs at SI know our choice and we have made our stage I payment early to secure our guaranteed agreed program rate.

This is where I 'll leave it for now. There are parents who have just come back from India and are discovering they are pregnant, how exciting! This gives us hope and hope for others too. July 30 can not come too soon for us.

If we have any other updates in the mean time I'll definitely be updating our blog. Some days we find ourselves unable to think of anything other than babies, IVF, India and the possibility that this we could go through all this and come out with a negative.

THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN!!!!

Please pray for us and others going through this journey of hope. I know that God will bless us with a child of our own.

Johnny