What a difference a year makes . . .
Natasha and Anjali turned four months old today and are sleeping (sometimes soundly) in their own cribs instead of my womb.
I am also doing great. I had a busy day today and was pleasantly surprised when I arrived home to find a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from George and Sanj. The card said, "Remembering you a year ago." Are they awesome or what?
It's amazing to think about the journey I started a year ago. It was so wonderful, I can't imagine it going any better than it did. We met great IP's. We got pregnant the first try. It was twins. It was a healthy pregnancy with an easy birth. I didn't have any real sadness watching the girls go away with their parents.
The only interesting (weird) feelings were, "now what"? Surrogacy is amazing. You have a goal for a long time, it comes to fruition and then you're (for all intensive purposes) done. It reminded me of after my wedding to Rick. You plan every single detail for about a year and in one night, it's over. Of course the marriage is there and great but the "planning" part is over. Some brides get the wedding planning blues. The more Surrogacy blogs I read, it seems there is a bit of Surrogacy (planning) Blues too.
One of the first things I thought about after delivering the girls is how I could totally do that again. I almost felt sad I was 34 years old and couldn't help more than one more couple become a family. I realize that people who are not surrogates or who have not been blessed with families with a surrogate's help can't really relate to my thinking. Some people I work with and even some family members thought I, "got it out of my system" so why would I even think about doing it again. Well, they were not with me in that hospital room when George and Sanj's babies were born. They were not there when they arrived a happily married couple but left a family. No, I assure you, if you were not there or have not been through something similar, you can not relate.
To be honest, I was not surprised when Lynn, my Growing Generations Counselor, asked me in the weeks following the birth about if I'd do this again. We had discussed my feelings throughout the entire process, so of course this would come up. I remember thinking, of course! For me though, time is of the essence as insurance for surrogates goes up at the age of 36. Actually, even if time was "on my side" , I'd chose to do it sooner than later. So in later conversations with the Surrogate Coordinator, I told them that yes, I would do it one more time (before my beautiful uterus wilts) LOL! My only stipulation is that I wanted a few months of an empty uterus and did not want to be in my third trimester during Christmas this time around. She said she'd talk to me later. But I'll leave the rest of this for another post. For now, here's an updated picture of the FAMILY I helped create
