Sunday, February 3, 2013

The New Men In My Life

The last few months I have been going through profiles of IP's for my next surrogacy, but to no avail. I kept telling myself, everything happens for a reason! These aren't working out because your perfect match isn't here yet, but it WILL come.

A lot of surrogates and IP's alike tend to rush into things, and this time I promised myself that there will be NO rushing, this will all happen on my terms, and this will work out and there is a couple who wants what I want, and things will be perfect, or at least near to it. I kept telling myself that there is plenty of time left, and I promised myself that even if it was July when I finally met my couple, it would not be a big deal, it'll happen the way it is supposed to happen.

Well, after numerous couples not working out, I decided to sit back and relax for awhile. Don't try too hard I told myself.

Along came a couple who seem to want nearly exactly what I want.

Surely, it can't be true right?

Well, so far, I've been speaking to them for a week, and they really seem like the cutest couple ever, and I am really hoping that it works out with them. They sent me their list of paperwork from the clinic that I need to fill out, and my gosh, it's definitely lengthy.

The list of paperwork that I have completed so far today are :

1. Consent and Release - this is basically a one sheet form that outlines what I can expect and what is expected of me with the clinic and surrogacy.

2. Attitudes and Preferences - this is a package about me, and about what I want and expect from the surrogacy, and after the surrogacy.

3. Gestational Carrier Application - I can't even sum up the amount of information I put into this. It is a 4 page package of questions. My goodness...they ask a lot of questions, but they are all necessary!

4. Consent To Disclose Personal Health Information - ...this is pretty self explanatory really. It's me giving the clinic permission to get my medical records.

5. A sheet that declares what screening tests are necessary for both me and Josh.

6. Infertility History Form - I'm not sure why this was necessary to be honest, but it was a 7 or 8 page package about my fertility background, birth controls over the years, anything to do with my hormones [onset of any kind of puberty, periods, menstrual cycles, any family genetics, ancestry...whatever you can think of...it's in there!]. Very long. It has a section for Josh as well...but nothing really seem to be relevant, so I will be asking my IF's about that part.

My ink ran out after printing all of that out, but my mom is going to print out the rest for me and drop them off later on today, and I'll complete them then! I'll update this list later once I've gotten the rest of the paperwork filled out.

It took me about an hour and a half to fill it all out so far.

I haven't spoken to my IP's about what information they would feel comfortable with me giving out, so for now I won't give any of their information out except that they are Canadian, and that they have family within the region.

They've also expressed that they want to have a close relationship, so I'm super excited for that, and that they would like to be here in town for about 9 months after the birth. I thought this was amazing, and I would be super interested in something like that. I hav eno clue how much involvement I would have of course, and maybe they would want my involvement to be very limited, I have no idea yet.

It is so important to be yourself while seeing if you are a match with IP's, and I'm trying so hard to let my personality come out, but I'm also very nervous about those first impressions, or giving the wrong impression of who we are.

So far we've only spoken through email, but just today we've agreed to have contact over the phone, and exchanged phone numbers.

Talking over the phone is a whole new step for me! Over email, it is so easy to take your time to explain things and erase and rewrite things [haha...I do that frequently], in when you're on the phone, you have no time for that, and you have to try to make a good impression while being yourself...on the spot!

I'm nervous but very excited at the same time. I hope that I'm a good fit for them, and that they are a good fit for me, all we've really seen is a general profile of each other, but I'm glad that I have potential IP's! 6 months and 8 days until we stop nursing, but there is so much to do until then!