"Its as simple as that...A surrogate mother volunteers to carry an unborn child that is not her own for another family."

Hey Everyone!  Today's blog is more of an education purpose to help make Surrogacy somewhat of a "not so far fetched idea."  Surrogacy is not a really known about activity, although it is a very important one.  When telling people that Jeff and I plan on being Surrogate Parents - we get one of two reactions - (1) Something like the following:  "Oh my goodness, that is such an admiral thing to do for someone.  You are giving the most incredible gift that anyone could give to a couple!"  (2)  Something like the following:  "Why?  Why would you be willing to do something like this for a couple that you don't know?  What if this...What if that..."
It's so wonderful that most of the responses when letting people know about our Surrogacy plan fall into the #1 reaction (THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL OF YOU WHO FALL INTO THAT CATEGORY; you really are what we need during this whole process).  It's so sad, though, that even though I have so much support from the #1 Reaction crowd, I often continue to contemplate the reactions of that #2 crowd.  As most of you know, I'm the type of person that wants to keep everyone happy and please everyone - and I guess not having 100% support from everyone that is important to me makes me dwell on the #2 crowds reactions.  I do however always have the answers for those #2 people - as I have done my research...so I'm hoping that this blog entry today will help familiarize the topic of Surrogacy to those that may need more education. 
First, the most important thing to know is that Surrogacy was not just a thought up option for me.  Surrogacy has been in my mind for quite some time.  Surrogacy first became appealing to me when someone close to me was having a difficult time conceiving a child on her own.  From this moment on, Surrogacy became something that I put on my "To-Do List in Life" - whether it was for this important person in my life or for someone else.  This was about 3 years ago and then, this important person finally got pregnant, without a surrogate and had a beautiful little baby.  Because I was raising a young child of my own, Surrogacy got put on the back burner but it was never forgotten.  Every now and then I pulled up some surrogacy websites and did a little reading.  About 2 years ago I started to really look into Surrogacy again, researching and reading, and then I got pregnant with my second blessing!  A few months back, some close friends of Jeff and I started to talk about having children and how they would love for me to be a surrogate for them one day - knowing that one day was not anywhere in the near future...this made me start to bring the topic up to Jeff.  We started researching and reading together and then decided "what the heck!"  Let's fill out a couple of applications and see what happens.  And now...here we are...in the process of becomming surrogate parents for an intended couple!

• Surrogate Mother:  The act of a woman, altruistic by nature, to gestate a child for another individual or couple, with the intent to give said child back to parents at birth.
• Gestational Surrogate:  the surrogate mother is not genetically related to the child. Eggs are extracted from the intended mother or egg donor and mixed with sperm from the intended father or sperm donor in vitro. The embryos are then transferred into the surrogate's uterus.
• Only 1-2% of women that apply to become a surrogate mother actually are chosen to go through the entire process.
• The majority of surrogate mothers are 28 years old, married with two children
• Top Three Reasons Surrogate Mothers want to become Surrogate Mothers:
• A gift from your heart to a deserving couple
• The want to be pregnant and give birth again, however not for themselves
• Income (although if this is your first motive, you're not going to make it very far in the process!)

I honestly feel that because of my want to do this, I am showing both my husband and my boys what true kindness is in this world that loses sincerity so easily.  It is an "out of the box" type of thing to do and it's not something that many people would think about doing - however I want my children to know that nothing is too much...it's great to think outside of the box...even if it's not the easiest thing in the world and not everyone may agree with your views or what your doing...if you feel that it's right in your heart - you should follow through.  I know by doing this I am teaching my children all of the above and they someday will reach out and help people in ways that they have learned through watching Jeff and I.  I am so thankful to all of you who follow our blog, write to me, email me, call me and support our decision to do this awesome thing!  I am very thankful for Jeff, my husband, for supporting this major decision and being the backbone for me when needed.  This is just an example of what thinking outside of the box can do to a family - we're bringing unknown happiness to a couple and we're finding more happiness in our family that we hadn't even thought of!