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!!!!

Baby steps (pardon the pun!)

We are officially at 6 weeks today!!!

From ParentsConnect online:

Your Baby:
This week starts a period of rapid cellular development for your baby-to-be, who looks like a mini tadpole, with a tiny head and tail. His or her eyes, ears and mouth have begun to form (though they're a little more Discovery Channel "creatures of the sea" documentary than Gerber Baby at this point).

Other exciting milestones include:

Your baby's heart is now beating to a regular beat, although it's still too faint to hear.

His or her arm buds are just beginning to, well, bud. They look like teensy swollen bumps at this point. In a few days, they'll resemble itsy-bitsy flippers.

Your baby has grown to ⅛ inch long—about the size of one of the chocolate sprinkles on your last cupcake.

Our journey is slowly creeping along, just like baby steps. Our next scan will be the first week in February. We are keeping busy baby window shopping and trying to keep our minds occupied without thinking about our baby growing so far away every single minute. I have been keeping a close eye on Gerry so he doesn't buy out the baby store. He already has all of the plans completed and ready for my go-ahead to start the nursery. I made him promise to wait until we get past the first trimester before we buy and start any baby stuff. But as Carrie Jo said 'if he has to buy, just do it in secret.' Thanks a lot Carrie Jo....now I will be wondering what he is up to for baby when I am not around!

We had an unexpected surprise the other day. I received an email from another couple right here in Mesa (S & J) going through surrogacy in India, who wandered upon our blog. They go and pick up their baby in Mumbai in April. We are planning a supper very soon, to meet and chat about surrogacy stuff. We are really excited about it! What a small world we live in.

Tomorrow is a big day in the Wile household! Frankie turns 13 (that's 91 in dog years!!) and we are planning a Birthday party for her. We are not sure how many more Birthday's we will have with her,(not something I like to talk about) so we are taking advantage of every single day we have with our beautiful girl. She truly is a huge part of our world. Those of you who are animal lovers know EXACTLY what I mean. She has been a part of our family for so long and we include her in just about everything we possibly can. She is like a child to us. I know that everyone thinks their dog is the greatest, and of course we are no different, but she is truly a very special animal. An amazing companion who gives us both her unconditional love and is always full of personality and spunk.

These are pictures of our beautiful Indian brass bell that we received as a gift from the Docs on our very first trip to India. Dr. Sudhir says that it is one of his favorites and that if someone rings it, it wards off evil spirits. It is a good omen and should be hung out at the front of your home. It took forever, but we finally found the perfect place for it outside our front door, right next to our 'Welcome' kokopelli (a Native American fertility God) sign.

We continue to keep track of all of our extended surrogacy family and those that are traveling soon to India for their up coming cycles, those that are in their 2 week wait and especially those that are going to pick up their babies.

Spreading the Word...

These 2 pictures are of my SUV complete with the new window film I had installed today. A large picture on the rear window, and 2 smaller pictures on the rear side windows. My firehouse is 53 miles one way from our house, so one day I thought that with me driving back and forth from the house to work this would be a great opportunity to try and reach out to those out there that are also suffering from infertility issues and might not know where to turn. Rhonda and I sat down and designed what we would like to have on the windows and then I took it to my friend Adam who put his artistic touch to it and then printed it up on this special window film which is actually completely see-through when you are looking out from the inside, it's pretty cool!!! So if we get even one person who seeks out Surrogacy India's help in their own journey to having a child, then it was well worth it.

Coming up with ideas like this is a way for me to try and take my mind off of worrying. Everyone thought that the 2 week wait was hard!!! Well let me tell you something, that is only the beginning!!! I am going crazy and it's only been just over a week since we found out that we are pregnant.

On Sunday, we spoke with Dr. Sudhir inquiring about what the next steps would be after the recent beta tests and ultrasound. We were so surprised when he said just wait a minute and he then sent us an email with the full itinerary of our step by step process laid out starting from the intial tests, then the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimesters and then right up to the day the baby is born. As well, each step has the date which it will be performed. This kind of individual personalized service is definitely one of the reasons that we chose to go with Surrogacy India, along with about a hundred other reasons!!! So, from our personalized itinerary, our next step will be our 6-7 week ultrasound which is scheduled for around February 3rd. That seems so far away!!!

I also had an opportunity to speak with one individual from our extended surrogacy family yesterday. I wanted to talk about the recent DNA issues being instituted in India, that we have just found out about and I have been doing some research on my end and wanted to discuss this with them. What a great feeling it is to be able to reach out and talk with someone that you hadn't previously known, but now have a common bond through surrogacy. This is what Rhonda envisioned when she started her blog and also when her and Dr. Sudhir started the surrogacy forum which has been such an overwhelming success. We are definitely not going through our journey's alone.

We found out this morning that the Docs have already had 4 positive pregnancies for 2009, so we are hoping and praying for everyone to make this the year that their dreams come true.

Fun baby facts...

We received our official due date.....September 23rd, WOW!!!! What a strange feeling. We had anticipated mid October, but the sooner the better. These after hour phone calls are getting better and better. This morning it was 7:08 a.m and Dr. Sudhir wanted to know, 'Why I was sleeping and not wide awake waiting for their phone call?' Yah, right! Anyone who knows me well enough, knows that I LOVE my sleep and being the weekend, I was getting every minute I could before Gerry arrived home from his 24 hour shift at the firehouse. Dr.Sudhir was in great spirits, so I was relieved, as I knew it had to be more good news. He immediately put Dr. Yashodhara on and she said KT had her 1st ultrasound today. There was a single sac, and the yolk sac looked great and was in a good position. YAY!!! what wonderful news! I am now feeling more and more excited as the days pass. Our next hurdle will be hearing the heartbeat which will be in a few weeks. KT was feeling well. She was heading home today to see her family and then tomorrow, she will be moving into her new apartment near Hiranandani Hospital that she will call home for the next 9 months until our baby is born.

Gerry and I are both very overwhelmed with the outpouring of feedback we have received. Such beautiful sentiments from everyone here on our blog, in emails and phone calls. We never imagined how many lives would be touched with our journey. I even went ahead and notified the journalist for Chatelaine magazine that had joined us during our last trip to India in August. I wanted to inform her that the story that is almost ready for publishing in the coming months, which originally had a sad ending with our negative result, would now have a very happy ending.

So now that we are officially pregnant, the Parents magazines that I have been receiving since our first pregnancy in 06' (I tried to cancel the subscription after we miscarried, as it was too hard getting a reminder every single month, but no such luck!) are all now unpacked and Gerry has one literally in every room of the house. So be prepared folks...to be drowned with tons of baby facts over the next 9 months.

Finally...Our Prayers have been answered.

YES, that means its official...

WE ARE HAVING A BABY!

We received our first call Saturday, January 10th at 0832am and heard both Dr. Yashodhara and Dr. Sudhir's voices say those long awaited words. 'You are pregnant!!!' Almost one year to the day since we began this part of our journey to having a family through surrogacy in India.

We waited to announce it here on the blog until we could tell our family and we received our second Beta test, so I (not Gerry) could be somewhat certain that it wasn't a false positive.

So, here are all of the details:

Saturday January 10th - our first Beta was 134.
Tuesday January 13th - it increased to 336.
This Saturday January17th will be our first ultrasound and we should find out if the sac is in the perfect spot and how many there are.

Gerry was so very excited from word one! Me on the other hand, well, I froze and truly don't remember any of the details past those 3 magical words. I am still feeling very cautious and a little bit in a fog as I still can't believe it is actually true.

We told my Mom and Dad first as we could tell them in person since they are "snowbirding" in Arizona for the winter and kept asking if we heard anything almost every single minute of every single day. Here was their unforgettable initial reaction when Mom opened the 'YOU HAVE A NEW GRANDCHILD' card:














and then the tears began...













and then of course the celebration...



























and you know we couldn't forget our girl and new 'Big Sister', Frankie...

We had one unexpected last minute change that the Docs wanted to wait to tell us. We had to use our back-up surrogate. We had told them both from day one that we trust them 100% and whatever we have to do to have a family...make it happen. And so they did. Her name is confidential to protect her privacy, so we will call her KT for short.

Gerry has basically told every stranger in every store and anyone who will listen since he was sworn to secrecy until we told our loved ones first. We went to the electronics store this weekend and he tried to explain the concept of surrogacy to the store clerk, a teenage kid. We had to laugh as all the clerk could relate it too was, 'that movie, Baby Mama?' So in honor of how many of the strangers of the world will see our journey, here is one of our favorite clips:

YouTube - Baby Mama "Bun" - TV Spot

Another update on our parcels that arrived 1 month after dropping them off at the post office here in Arizona. We had meticulously wrapped and packed everything with such care only to find out that the customs folks in India had rummaged through the entire thing. The Doctors called up on the web cam and unpacked it all in front of us as all the gifts were unwrapped and all the names were no longer legible. But happily we were able to figure out what gifts were sent for each person and especially to see the joy on their faces as we watched from afar. Note to self...Do not send wrapped gifts to India if you want them to arrive in one piece!

We will certainly keep you updated as the days, weeks and months progress. Please keep saying those prayers for our surrogate (aka Baby Mama) KT and our little one or ones to remain healthy and strong along the way, and also continue with all of the positive comments that you have been leaving on our blog.