2 Down...7 to go!

Months that is... We are at 8 weeks today. It is going much faster then we thought.

From ParentsConnect online:

Your Baby:

This week, your little tadpole is starting to look a little bit more human. Other exciting developments include:

Your baby's eyelids, ears, upper lip and the tip of his soon-to-be adorable button nose are forming. Junior will also sprout webbed fingers and toes this week—which you'll be well aware of in a few months, as baby starts early gymnastics classes inside the tummy.

Baby's tiny heart has separated into four distinct chambers and is really ticking now—at a rate of 150 beats per minute. That's more than twice your resting heart rate (even when Brad Pitt is on the screen).

Your baby is now a little more than ½ inch long, about the size of the rock in Eva Longoria's engagement ring, and is about as heavy as the check Tony Parker wrote to pay for it.

We are so blessed to be surrounded by such loving and caring friends and family. We received another unexpected baby gift this week via the postal service. My dear sister Tracy and her girls sent a beautiful baby scrapbook and a baby journal from Canada. They are absolutely perfect and they must have read our minds as we have been out looking for the perfect book to start writing all the little details down. I know you check our blog at least 10times a day for updates big Sister, so thanks once again for your thoughtful gift...we LOVE it.

We've been talking baby names constantly and 'window' shopping at

That keeps Gerry happy until I will let him actually get the check book out and start going crazy buying everything we need (and then some!!). After much research, and Gerry's extensive reading of the Baby Bargains book, we have chosen a stroller and an infant carrier/car seat and are almost settled on the furniture for the nursery. has become our best friend with scoping out great deals on some brand new baby stuff. Gerry keeps reminding me every chance he gets, 'once we hit 3 months Rhonda, time is going to fly by and we have SO much to do!'

February is going to be a very busy month for the Docs in India with so many clients there doing cycles, so we are glad that our next busy set of blood test and scans isn't until mid March. We hope that we will be able to hijack a little of their time on Skype during this special time.

We continue to receive numerous emails daily from couples and individuals from all over the world who are interested in surrogacy in India and happened upon our blog. It is so nice that they are able to have some of their questions answered through reading our blog and from personal emails exchanged back and forth. As we said since the beginning, if we are able to help just one person achieve the wonderful gift of a beautiful baby, then we have done what we set out to do, through telling the entire story of the ups and downs of our amazing journey.

Beat, Beat, Beat.... That's The Sound of Life

We were anxiously awaiting our next ultrasound, which was scheduled for February 3rd according to our personalized itinerary. February 3rd in Mumbai would actually be the evening of February 2nd here in Arizona, WOW! where did the time go? It's here already! This was an important test. It had been on both our minds from the very first day we learned that we were pregnant, but being a positive guy, I didn't really put any thought into the fact that we may receive bad news.

I was 100% certain that everything was alright and I went about doing things around the house to keep busy, while we waited to hear from the docs. Rhonda and I decided to go on the internet to check out our fellow bloggers and as we were looking and reading, up popped a message on Skype from Dr. Sudhir. He was letting us know that our amazing surrogate KT had arrived at the clinic and was with Dr.Yash, and she would be going to get the ultrasound done very soon. Dr. Sudhir said how beautiful KT looked and how wonderful her husband was and what great care he was taking of her. This was all so exciting. Rhonda and I had been to the clinic and more specifically, Rhonda had an ultrasound done in the doctor's office downstairs by Dr.Yash on our last trip. In our minds we were able to picture what it looked like and we also were even able to see the doctor as we had the pleasure of meeting him as well. Here is a picture of Rhonda at the clinic (just insert KT instead of her).

Rhonda and Dr.Sudhir talked back and forth and I asked him to be our ears and listen to the heart beat for us. At one time he wished us luck that everything would go well. What? Luck, you mean there is a chance that there could be something wrong? Rhonda was so excited and ran off to the shower. I then got on the computer and talked with Dr.Sudhir as I waited anxiously for the results. Why was it taking so long? Was something wrong? Minutes seemed like hours! Still no results. I continued to wait patiently. Dr.Sudhir then said that it could take some time, so Rhonda and I should both go and get some sleep since it was very late, and he would call when he had the results. Sure, easy to say, how could I sleep? I was a nervous wreck!

Rhonda on the other hand was calm. So we tried to sleep as best we could, which in reality, I just laid there hoping and praying that everything would be alright. After an hour or so, the phone rang. This was it, would our journey continue, or would it come to an abrupt end?

Rhonda answered the phone and Dr.Sudhir gave her the results. She put it on speaker phone and told him to repeat what he said. "A single live fetus is noted in well defined gestation sac with good fetal cardiac activity." Fantastic news, we reached another milestone!

We could finally sleep...ya right! Now we were way too pumped to sleep. We both laid there in each others arms talking of our dreams coming true and how very elated we were, was this really happening? We were having a baby!

Here is our little one's first photo (it's kinda hard to see) he/she is there with their little heart beating away. We created a life...AMAZING!


On to our first trimester mark...March 10th!

Okay, so I cracked....

I bought something! Just a little something....so does it really count? Just a great big stuffed elephant from IKEA, that I just COULDN'T resist! I know, I know, I totally went against my word! But...I couldn't resist and it reminds me of India.

Then, I went into work on Monday morning to find a gift bag stuffed with gifts sitting on my desk from my good friend and assistant Jo . She tried to pull one over on me, by saying, 'Well, you said that YOU weren't buying anything, but you didn't say WE couldn't! Then she said, well, you can leave it in the garage if you want, I won't be insulted! She is way too cute! She truly has been such a huge fan of our blog and an even bigger support to me since we first met in April.

Today, it's Super Bowl Sunday and it will be interesting this year. With Dad, a die-hard Pittsburg Steelers fan playing our very own home town Arizona Cardinals it is sure to make it a fun time at our home in front of the big screen TV, watching and cheering on each team and enjoying Mom's home made chilli.

In the meantime we are keeping busy. Gerry's 24 hours off from the Fire Station are spent trying to convince me 'that the next 7 months will go by very quickly, so he REALLY needs to start work on the nursery.' I came home the other day to see our 'office' (which I am now required to refer to as 'the baby's room') empty. He just makes me laugh. I did however purchase the Baby Bargains Book on Amazon (Thanks Mike's) to keep him occupied. So far it has helped as now I get phone calls from him while he is at work about 'no bumper pads in the crib' and the 'best car seat' to purchase. I think he has almost read the entire thing.

We also have been doing some finishing touches on our home decorating. We took our hand made Indian elephant rug we purchased while in Jaipur, and had it framed. The shop owner in Jaipur told us that it took 2 men, 15 days of stitching by hand to complete and we literally paid only a few dollars for it. In fact the framing cost at least 10 times the amount, but it was so worth it to have this beautiful keepsake preserved for us to enjoy daily. This picture of it on the wall totally doesn't do it justice as the elephant is actually sewn to be 3 dimensional. When you all come to visit you will truly be able to see how beautiful it is.

Last night was a fun time. We met S & J and talked non-stop over supper about their clinic Rotunda, and our clinic SI, Mumbai, Indian food and so much more. What wonderful people they are and we had so much to talk about. We were able to show them pictures on our I-touch right there at the restaurant of Dr. Soni (who will deliver their baby) and of the Hiranandani Hospital where their baby will be born (and are's too!!). Funny enough, we also found out they will be picking up their little one at the same time as other members of our extended surrogacy family, The Mike's. It truly makes you realize what a very small world we live in.

Well, gotta run it almost time for the pre-game Super Bowl show.... GO CARDINALS!!!!! (shhhh, Don't tell Dad.)

7 weeks and counting....

Today is our seven week mark, YAY!!!! Another milestone. We are anxiously awaiting our next scan. The Docs keep us regularly posted that our surrogate KT is doing great. She is home resting till her next trip to the clinic sometime this coming week for her 7-8 week ultrasound.

From ParentsConnect online:

Your Baby:

This week your baby's brain is growing at a mind-boggling 100 cells per minute within a see-through skull. If you could peer inside, you'd see those tiny brain cells growing and growing and growing.

More high points include:

Your baby's face is becoming more defined this week. A tiny mouth hole (which will be ready to wail before you know it!), tongue, nostrils and ear indentations are visible. His or her eyes are wide open, but he doesn't have irises (the colored part) yet.
Baby's arm buds are growing. At this point they look more like microscopic ping-pong paddles than arms. Baby's leg buds are also forming and will look like tiny paddles by the end of the week.
The umbilical cord—the connection between your baby and the placenta—is now visible.
Your baby is now between 1/3 and 1/4 inch long—about the length of a Tic Tac and about as heavy as an eyelash. While that sounds tiny, he or she is approximately 10,000 times bigger than at conception. Crazy, huh?

We have plans for dinner tonight with S & J, the local couple who we have been chatting with over the phone. It should be a lot of fun to actually meet people face-to-face who also have a surrogate pregnant in India and share in our feelings and anticipation. I begged S to bring ultrasound photos so we can share in their excitement.

This is a beautiful plaque that I received as a gift from a very special woman I worked with last year. We look at it every day and it truly does give us the inspiration to keep plugging away.

How quickly they grow up...

HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY FRANKIE GIRL!!!!

Hamburger birthday cake, ice cream, a new collar, party hats and balloons! What a PARTY!!! Definitely one we won't soon forget.

Today we spent some time out with friends enjoying the awesome Arizona weather. We also were able to chat with Kristin, Gerry's youngest daughter (21 years old). She is heading to India in just over a month to do missionary work with her church. She is traveling to a small village outside of Kolkata and will be there for 3 months. She is very excited, as are we. What an amazing cultural experience for her. We have a care package to send to her that includes her sari that we had purchased for her during our last visit to Mumbai, and a surprise gift that we know she will LOVE and we will also throw in some Rupees for her to get started once she hits the ground running in India.

Gerry has recruited my Mom to be the official seamstress for the nursery curtains, bumper pads, blankets, etc. I have some sewing experience, but Mom...she is the bomb when it comes to that! Mom and Dad leave to head back to the Great White North in early April, so Gerry is chomping at the bit to get me to allow him to start things early. He has already picked the unisex theme (for those that don't know, it is illegal in India to do sex determination so...the gender of our baby is a complete secret until delivery day). He has also picked the color scheme and has drawn up a complete layout of where the crib, change table and toy storage will go. I know, I know, I am such a big meany by holding him back until the second trimester!

Just 7 weeks to go Sweetie, I know you can do it!!!!