Home again, home again jiggity jig!

BACK HOME SWEET HOME!!! Although we are missing Mumbai and our wonderful friends we are very happy to be home. Our Frankie girl was so happy to see us and trust me the feelings were mutual. She hasn't left our sides since being home. We arrived home Saturday around 4:30pm. Called Mom and Dad to say we got home safe, unpacked a little and had a shower. Gerry was in the shower when I crawled into bed to snuggle with Frankie at 5:00pm. That was the last thing I remember. Fast forward 14 hours later (yes that was 14 hours!) when I finally awoke. Apparently the phone had rang, Gerry tried to wake me for supper, he came to bed, he woke up and still I slept!!! I suppose the 32 plus hours of flying and airport time over the last few days caught up to me.

We will receive our results of the surrogates pregnancy test around 15 days from the date of the embryo transfer, so we are back once again where we were last May, waiting and praying and sitting on pins and needles.

We had another fabulous trip to India. No complaints, nothing negative to report! All in all, India is amazing, the Docs and the entire team with Surrogacy India are superb.

I know I probably sound like a broken record but we can't express enough how thankful and grateful we are for all the love and support we have received from everyone. In the two weeks we were away in India we received over 1200 visits to our blog. That seems completely surreal to us both as neither of us ever thought what began as our personal little journey would grow into a story for others to share. The Surrogacy Support Group and its members have been outstanding, our family, friends and co-workers are terrific. We could not have imagined this type of support and are overwhelmed and so appreciative of everyone.

I will compile all the photos and video taken now that we are home and have uninterrupted computer service and post a bunch from our grand adventures.

Sad tears!

We are wrapping up here in India and preparing for our trip back home. We are very sad to leave our home away from home. We have had busy, long days and are exhausted but wish we could stay longer.

Today we visited with our dear friends Henry and Lorna (Mel's parents). They feel like family to us and it was wonderful to catch up and enjoy Christine's amazing Indian cooking and not too spicy for me!!!

After the Doctors surprised us with a visit to Rekha's home. She had been hesitant about having the photographer and journalist there with it being such a tiny community, but she opened her home to Gerry and I. It was truly amazing to see her home and meet her mother and son. They went and bought us soda's as a gesture of kindness and to welcome us. She was resting and looked well and her son was waiting on her hand and foot. He was such a doll. Big smile and so hospitable. He showed us his new drawings in the sketch book we had given to him and it touched our hearts. We saw family photos and talked about her growing up in the town. It was like a small village and it felt like we had left Mumbai. Small winding roads with homes lining them and everyone looking out and smiling at us, and lots of green, beautiful trees everywhere. I am sure we were the talk of the town. Her Mother and son took us for a hike up to a beautiful temple that overlooked all of Mumbai. It was magnificent and Gerry is still laughing at the loads of photos I took of dogs, goats and pigs, lots of pigs! We felt so welcomed and honored to share in the experience of meeting her family and seeing her home. It will help us to imagine her surroundings of love and happiness while her belly grows.

We have spent over 30 days in India now in the last 6 months and we have seen more kindness and beauty then we could have ever imagined. Yes there is poverty, and yes there is dirt, and yes it's crowded, but we see through it all and are amazed at ever single thing and every single person we come in contact with, but we embrace it all to the fullest.

We love spending time with our new family, Dr. Yash and Dr. Sudhir. We no longer consider them our Doctors but true and dear friends. A friendship that goes beyond making a baby, a true connection and one that will definitely last a lifetime whatever our results.

We leave tomorrow late night to be at the airport for 9:00pm and depart 12:20am Saturday. We should be home with our darling Frankie Saturday around 4:00pm. I can't wait to see her and be greeted with lots of doggie kisses!

Happy tears!

A wonderful day, but emotionally exhausting. Our day started at 7:00 am and we were scheduled to arrive at the IVF center for 8:30. We arrived right at 8:30 and rushed up to the 2nd floor, and fortunately we got there just in time for our embryo transfer, Whew!!! Dr. Yashodhara met us and called us in to the door of the lab where Dr. Pai was laser hatching our embryos. We got to see them on the screen. How amazing that was! What stories we will be able to tell our child, we saw them as an embryo! We then consulted with both Dr. Pai and Dr. Yash as to our results. We had 4 embryos for transfer. 3 grade A and 1 grade B and the other 2 have been left to divide some more, for a possible 5 day sequential transfer, we will keep you updated on that, just continue to send good wishes and prayers our way.

I encouraged Gerry to go in for the transfer this time as I had the opportunity last time. He was overwhelmed by emotions when Rekha said she would be fine with him going in with her. He was able to hold her hand and stroke her head and she looked up at him and said, 'I am strong.' We both had lots of tears of joy and happiness. When her husband saw us he said not to cry, 'no tension, only smile, God will take care.' We got to visit some after the transfer and noticed that Rekha was wearing the necklace we had brought for her as a gift. She told us, 'My friends gave it to me.' Of course again some more tears!

We got to have lunch with all the clients and a lawyer visiting from Canada who is here to learn all about the process and about surrogacy in general. It was a fun time, as we are now waiting, tomorrow is CK and MK's egg pick up and then SB and RB. We had so much sharing and talking about it all.

Now the hard part! We wait and must realize it is all in God's hands and we have done all that we can to make our dream come true to in the end have a beautiful little angel (or 2) to join our family.

Ready for transfer...

Tomorrow is another big day. Transfer of our embryos into our surrogate. We are scheduled for 8:30 am. So it will be another early morning and full day ahead. We won't find out anything about our embryos until we arrive tomorrow. So we are saying our prayers and hoping for 6, but will take what ever we can get! As everyone says...'it only takes one!'

We are excited to see our spunky, sweet surrogate Rekha again and to share in the transfer of our embryo's to her. It is all very emotional. She speaks some English and so we are able to converse with her. At one point the other day during our signing of the agreements, Gerry was videoing and she said, 'Mr. Gerry come and sit!' He even got it on tape. We are still laughing about it. She is absolutely wonderful. Full of life, smiling, laughing and what a sense of humor. She told me she knows it is going to work for us and she is going to do everything to make it happen now I just have to do my part too. Stay positive and upbeat and it will happen. She kept thanking us for this and we were so humbled as we are the ones who were thanking her over and over for her sacrifice she is making. She is truly an amazing woman. This will be her second time being a surrogate and she shared with us about how supportive her children and husband are not even letting her get up for a glass of water. Her husband even cooked and cleaned for 7 months during her last surrogate pregnancy as they take very special care with the very important package she is carrying. It brought tears to my eyes to hear her speak such amazing things.

Today we did some shopping and the photographer followed us about. She says she got some great shots of us bartering with the store keepers and just being ourselves. I picked up a few more bangles to go with my set back at home, two punjabi suits (salwar kameez), some shoes, a sari and other souvenirs for others back home. They draped me in the sari at the store even though we told them it was not for me. We were able to finally decide upon one after they showed us what seemed like a million colors and patterns to choose from. It was quite the event as we learned you need to purchase a top and petticoats to go with it as well. All new to me!

We had a good laugh at hearing the young men refer to Gerry as a WWE wrestler. So far he has been referred to as John Cena, The Undertaker and Batista. One of our rickshaw drivers even asked for his autograph today!

Well off to bed as we have a BIG day tomorrow and need to be rested.

Mother Hen lays her eggs!

It was a long day at Lilavati Hospital yesterday. Arrived at 6:00 am and returned back to the hotel around 6:30 pm. My egg pick up went well. We retrieved 5 follicles from my right side (the other 2 were my small cysts)and Dr. Shaunak went in and found 4 on the left. 1 big follicle and 3 smaller ones not advanced. So in total we ended up with 6 follicles. Gerry was anxiously awaiting the results and Dr. Shaunak came right out to tell him. Before we went in, we waited for a short time in the waiting area for patients, a girl came and asked Gerry to wait outside and he said, 'No, I am staying with my wife.' It was kind of funny as the girl didn't really know what to say, I giggled and felt good that I have such a caring, loving husband.

I am feeling more sore this time around as they had to poke around some on the left side to get to that one lone follicle. Dr. Yash explained that due to my '2 of everything' the left horn covers the ovary and it is hard to locate. Yeh, for me!!! We came directly back to the hotel and since it was so late in the day, Dr. Yash personally drove us back, she was so wonderful, taking care as to not go over all the bumps in the rode, while the cars behind us just honked away. I rested most of the evening and Gerry even treated me with Pizza Hut delivery for supper.

Today we met with the journalist and the photographer and are going to do some shopping. They want lots of photos of us just doing stuff! We will see how long I last today, as I am still pretty exhausted from everything yesterday. We are also scheduled to go to our surrogates home today. We are truly honored that she has invited us and we can't wait to be a part of this bonding experience.