SKUNK ATTACK!!!!

OK, so I am being a good Mommy after getting home from work late and decide while Daddy is at work I will take my little girl for a walk. We head out on our usual route. Let me say that Frankie is a great dog and never goes on a leash. We cross the street to the golf course where she heads over to her usual sniff area. I see her run towards something a few feet away and think, "Oh silly dog she is thinking the bushes are something alive". Jokes on me when I see something REALLY move and I shine the light on her leash towards it. A SKUNK, yep, just walking away with its tail in the air all proud! So...my sweet puppy walks over to me shaking her head and licking like crazy. Can you guess how I spent the rest of my evening??? Let's just say I love Google! I immediately searched the remedy for 'removing skunk smell' as the last time for her was 10 years ago in Niagara Falls at Grandma and Papa's place and tomato juice was the therapy of choice. Vinegar, warm water, Dawn liquid soap and baking soda is the current most popular way in case anyone is in need of a skunk smell removal remedy.


Last evening was much more enjoyable. Gerry and I went to the annual Arizona State Fair here in Phoenix. It brings back such childhood memories for me going to carnivals and fairs with my family. There were elephant rides and it made us miss India, SO much! We went to the petting zoo twice...OF COURSE!!! Rhonda the animal lover would not miss out on that. Camels, emu's, giraffe, water buffalo, zebra, pigs, ostrich, and a whole bunch more. Gerry had to tear me away from feeding each and everyone of them as I couldn't leave anyone out! We ate fair food, walked and watched people play games and ride the rides and even went to the Sheryl Crow Concert included in our fair admission. Yes, Gerry is NOT a huge fan of Sheryl Crow for the record, but he went for me! It was a fabulous night, although it was break for all the school kids and it was tough seeing family after family with 4 and 5 children and all sorts of pregnant teenage girls . Its so hard sometimes when all you wish for is 1 and so many people are blessed with such big beautiful families. But we remained positive saying we will bring our children someday to enjoy the fair. Eat fair food and watch Daddy as he tries to tear them and Mommy away from the animals at the petting zoo.

I am totally pooped from hours of scrubbing and bathing my white girl Frankie (I hope she knows how much she is loved!) so its off to bed for me.

A weekend get-away.

Well we decided to clear our heads and go away for a day this past weekend. We drove up to Pinetop (about 3 hours north) stopping at antique places on the way. Gerry made a special bed in the back of the Durango for Frankie so not to be hard on her back legs. She is the Queen afterall! We had a relaxing time in the cabin with a roaring fire and cool fresh mountain air. We went fishing and walking on the trails and fed the ducks. It was a fabulous time!

We reviewed our donor profiles and talked a bunch on the trip and finally decided on a beautiful young 21 year old Muslim girl from Mumbai area. She has long black wavy hair, dark brown eyes, small facial features (like me), and a beautiful smile. She is a petite woman(hard to find a tall woman in India)who is a housewife and enjoys singing and cooking. Gerry hopes the later rubs off on our child as I am not a domestic goddess by any means! Dr. Yash said she has good eggs and just had a previous successful donor pregnancy a few months back. So...she has started on her BCP's and Rekha has as well. We are hoping to be doing a embryo transfer sometime in early December at this point. The Docs were sad we won't be able to travel for the transfer, but 3 trips to India in one year is just a bit too much. We assured them we will make the trip next year in August to pick up our newborn.

We are really excited about this decision and are hoping and praying this will be the answer to our prayers.

Sometimes God is so cruel...I was 4 days late this month with my period and thought forsure all my positive thinking had us pregnant, but old Aunt Flow reared her ugly head after playing with me for days! Oh well, back to the drawing board again. Besides I wouldn't have been able to travel to pick up our little one had I been pregnant this close to transfer.

Will post some photos of our lovely weekend when we get our computer back from the shop and up and working... SEE Sunday, November 23, 2008

What a wonderful surprise!!!

1045 pm last night the phone rang and it was Dr. Yash. She called to say that Rehka our surrogate wanted to speak with us but that it wouldn't be for another hour or more as she had to travel to the clinic and asked if it would be too late. Of course I wouldn't give up a opportunity like that! So I tried desperately to fall back to sleep while I waited, but no such luck I was much too excited. Unfortuneately Gerry would miss out as he was working. It was so wonderful to hear her voice say 'hello Rhonda, how are you?' Dr. Yash helped translate as she told me how her son was so fond of Gerry and I and keeps asking when we will be back. She proceeded to say that when he found out his Mom wasn't pregnant he told her that maybe he hadn't taken good enough care of her. It made me sad to think that a 13 year old boy would even burden himself with such a task, but so completely touched that he would and had done so dilegently. What an amazing young man! I told her to be sure to get her Christmas list together for the whole family as we needed some ideas for gifts to send. We laughed and joked about how she wished I was there during the recent Devali festival so we could go shopping together. She said she is absolutely ready to try again for us. Dr. Yash ended by telling me that Rekah had called her to ask if she could make the trip (a long trip at that) to the clinic that day just to talk to me. I was completely touched. Needless to say I got very little sleep last evening after that as I was on cloud nine the rest of the night...it was well worth losing a nights sleep in my books!!!

This is SURREAL!!!

We got our first batch of donor profiles today. I took some time at work to print out all their profiles and the photos. WOW! This is so completely different then choosing a surrogate who will carry your child, this is a complete genetic link. Now that these beautiful women's faces are here in front of me it is really starting to sink in. WHOA...this is huge! Gerry is on a 24 hour shift at the Fire Dept tonight so he won't see them till tomorrow. I am so anxious for him to share these with me. Dr. Yash called and we chatted all about each of them. Their personalities, their families, their physical features, their education, everything. It was really neat! I am truly at a loss for words. I can't even begin to express the emotions I am feeling right at this very moment. Its like looking at a complete stranger and thinking to yourself...'Well does she look like I would want her to be part of my child?' Something I had never in a million years imagined I would be doing. It is a great responsibility and delicate decision. I am overwhelmed with emotions as I type this and look over at these Indian woman's photos surrounding me. They are gorgeous, with long dark ebony hair and stunning dark eyes with fair skin and beautiful teeth. They are educated and young and artistic and have all had positive pregnancies with donating their eggs before. I wish I could share them with the world. This could very possibly be one of the women who will be apart of our child forever. This is REAL.

Patiently waiting...

We are still waiting for donor profiles and are extremely anxious to see them and make our choice. We are really excited about the idea of moving along in our journey in a slight different but exciting direction. If all goes as planned we will be starting another cycle as early as end of November.

We are both keeping busy with work and household stuff. Here are some of our latest photos. A picture of our newest addition...an 18 foot saguaro cactus (only found in this part of AZ) and me all dressed up for work in my salwar kameez we got in India.