Options........

Hello all,

First off - a shout out to my Grandma Carlson, who turns 91 today!! I was fortunate to visit her this past week and although she doesn't remember who I am, she remains her beautiful, loving self. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Thanks to those of you following this blog so diligently - as promised, here are some updates! :-)

We left off with Chris and I reviewing the agency application and determining what we were looking for in a surrogate. That task was a bit bigger than we anticipated, so we had no problem taking a little break from it. :-) Chris took off to enjoy 10 days of deer hunting, and I took advantage of my hunting widow-hood by going back home to spend the week with family and friends - much needed for both of us! This little time-out proved to be a blessing in disguise and brought about some MAJOR developments. (I'm becoming more and more convinced that timing is everything and God's plans always have a way of working themselves out!)

In the short amount of time that Chris and I "vacationed", we secured not ONE, but TWO surrogate options!! WHAT?!! YES!!!!! Both of these options are people already in our lives - loved ones who both Chris and I have knows for years and years. (At this time, I'm not naming any names, as we are still in the process of getting cleared by our doctors to proceed.) I had given up on anyone else coming forward to offer, but thanks to this blog, our story reached people in a way it may not have otherwise. Just another reason I'm thankful I started this ol' thing. :-)

Seriously though. I can't even believe how blessed we are to have people in our lives who would so selflessly help us out in this way, expecting nothing in return. Both couples have said no strings attached, and no fees (although, one did say she'd expect a yearly Christmas card - really?! She already gets one, ha ha!) The best part is that each of these people had already discussed the issue with their husbands before coming to me, and those husbands have talked to me personally. It takes a special guy to agree to something like this, right?! Talk about keepers!! (Note: this is in no way meant to disparage the other people who offered but whose husbands thought they were crazy - I totally get it and they are also keepers - you all know who you are!! :-)

Sidebar: I want to take a minute here to acknowledge that there are other people in our life who are very much willing and able to do this for us, but for reasons of our own, were not "chosen" to be our carrier. You also know who you are, and I know you'll read this. We love you, and will forever appreciate that you offered to do this for us. My excitement in finding someone "else" does not diminish our appreciation for you, and I hope you know that this decision is nothing personal in terms of something we find lacking in you. Please know that as I write about this, you are in my mind and when I talk about how blessed we are for the people in our lives - YOU are included in that. We love you.

The next step in the process was to contact the gestational carrier program coordinator at CRM, which I did yesterday. She will be reaching out to Potential Carrier #1 (as I'll call her for now) to get the paperwork started. PC #1 has an appointment with her OB/GYN this week, at which time they'll determine if she'll be cleared to do this. If not, we'll move on to Potential Carrier #2. AHH! We're moving right along now!! Stay tuned!!