Beginning our journey

For a long time now I've wanted to be a surrogate.  I think it's been since I had John, but wanted to finish having my own children first. Well, I did that in a hurry...not really on purpose, though.  So for the last few months Joe has been asking me if I am still going to pursue it. He's always been very supportive of it. My problem was just finding the time to fill out the application. It was forever long and very detailed. So I finally sat down to do it one night and got the ball rolling. I'm going through an agency in Cincinnati called Reproductive Assistance, Inc. The day after I submitted my application I got an e-mail from their president, Lisa, asking when she could do a phone interview with me. Wow! That was fast. This was a Friday. We had a phone interview the following Monday which lasted about an hour. It went really well. The following Saturday Lisa's sister, Bethany, who is the vice-president of the company came up to our house to meet us in person and go over the process. That day Joe and I signed the contract agreeing to work with agency and agreeing to their terms and conditions.  That went very well. The following Wednesday we had another conference call with Lisa. This time she also talked to Joe. This past Monday we took a trip down to Cincinnati to meet with a psychologist that the agency works with to make sure that Joe and I are both mentally stable to do this. I had to take a test called the MMPI-2. It's a personality test and helps to diagnose any mental health issues.  It was 500+ true/false questions!  Some of the questions were so weird. If you search MMPI-2 online you can see some of the questions.  Anyways, we left her office feeling like everything went really well and I received a phone call from her a few hours later saying that she would let RAI know that she recommended us for the process.


So that is where we're at now. I believe the next step is for RAI to make a profile of me for Intended Parents to view. The agency tries to match us up with couples that they think will work good with us. In my original application they asked questions about who I would work with. What it came down to was that we are looking for a married Christian couple who have the same morals and values we have. I don't want this to be taken the wrong way, but I think it may be harder for us to choose a couple than it will be to be chosen by them.  Does that make sense? I'm praying, though, that the process will go smoothly and we'll be matched up quickly.

Say Cheese!

Last night Joe and I decided to treat the kids to pizza and Chuck E. Cheese's. We went to CiCi's for pizza cause it's waaay cheaper than the pizza at Chuck E.'s. Everybody was very well behaved and ate well. Once we got to Chuck E. Cheese's we gave each of the boys a handful of tokens and let them go. As always, they had a ball.  It wasn't crazy busy, so that was nice. John had mentioned a few times that he wanted to sit with me in the photo booth, but once he got playing I think he forgot about it. After a few times of asking I finally got him to sit with me. We posed for a couple pics and then took Gracie out of the stroller and put her in with us. We had to crunch in really close together and Grace decided that John's face looked tasty and started to lick it. Our picture came out so cute because John and I were cracking up laughing and then there's Grace with her tongue sticking out! I am going to keep this picture forever!

Speaking of Grace, she's finally started to become a little more mobile. She'll move from a sitting position to her belly by basically doing the splits and rolling forward. It's so funny to watch. Once she's on her belly she can turn herself around in a circle, but she's still not getting up on her hands and knees. I'm not rushing her either. Less time I have to chase her around. She is just so much fun though. She's happy almost all the time.  Joe went to pick her up out of the nursery at church last Sunday and he said all he could hear was crying babies as he walked up. Once he got to the door and peeked in he saw her just sitting on the floor playing while several other babies were all worked up and upset. I guess it didn't bother her! It probably helps that she's around other kids at our daytime babysitter's house too.  I know she has to have more teeth coming through too, but it doesn't seem to bother her too much. Last Thursday she had her 9 month check up with Dr. Haase. She weighed 19 lbs. 5 oz and was 28 1/4 in. long. Her growth pattern is finally slowing down some. Prior to this check up her weight had been around the 75th percentile and length was 90th percentile which was where she had been since she was born. But this time she was between the 50th and 75th for both weight and length. For awhile there I was thinking she was going to be tall like her Daddy, but now who knows? He insists that she's my little clone, but it would be nice for her if she had at least some of his height!

Here's the picture of John and me.

Here we are cracking up at Grace trying to lick John's face!

And here's Daddy and Alex having fun.

And here's a few fun one's of Gracie getting so big.

Future cheerleader, maybe?

Taking a bath in the big tub with her brothers. She loves it!

Day One

I've been thinking about it for awhile now. Decided to finally act on it. Nobody's probably very interested in all I have to say, but I'm thinking of it as more of a journal of my daily living. I'm going to be a blogger...ok, now that that's over, I'll get on with it. I'm just gonna dive right in...Hmmmm, what to say.

Let's start with the other day. I think it was Sunday. Yeah, it was Sunday. We were getting ready for church and Alex was playing with Grace on my bed. He was about to give her something that she could've choked on, so I stopped him. John, who's nearly 4 1/2, then informed me what you do when someone is choking. Full description of the Heimlich Maneuver. He's 4. Seriously? I asked him where he learned that and he replies, "My science book." Like, "Duh, mom." So I asked him what science book he was talking about. He runs off and comes back with a little pocket reference guide that I bought when I finished nursing school. I remembered that I had looked through it with him awhile back and told him he could keep it. That kid is something else. He simply amazes us sometimes. Often Joe and I wonder if all kids are like this, or if he's really got something here.  Slowly, I think we're finding out that he's a little above the average 4 year old. I absolutely don't mean that to sound like it does either. I'm not saying he's better than others, cause believe me he doesn't know it all. He's working on his number and letter recognition and writing his name, but when it comes to critical thinking and memory recall, I think he's a little ahead of the game. He'll go to kindergarten screening in May, and I'm interested in seeing what they have to say.  Then again, like I said before, maybe all kids are like this.

On to other things, our living room has finally (already?)  been cleared of all baby gear.  When I say that I mean, no more swing, bouncer, jumperoo, or floor gym. Really, when did she get so big that she no longer needs this stuff? So, when I say finally I mean it's nice to have the extra space in the room, but I'm also sad that she's growing so fast. 3 more months and she'll be a year old already. It's one of those things where it seems like she was just born, but yet it feels like she's been with us forever. I can barely remember what life was like without her. She is the sweetest, happiest little baby girl and I love her so much.