Our daughter is very excited about her fourth birthday, which is fast approaching. Although she not quite aware of the meaning of eight days to go, she somehow senses that her big day is really imminent. This is because parcels from far away always arrive, and one of these parcels is from the U.S.A. , addressed to her from her surrogate mom, who never forgets special days. We will never forget her and our most important special day, the day she gave us our little girl.
Our surrogate mom has her own growing family, yet she was able to help us start our family by giving the greatest gift anyone could give. She carried our own embryo for us for nine months, as it was medically impossible for us to do that. At the end of that time, she thought not of herself, but only of us. With that selfless act of giving us our baby she made our lives whole. For that, every day when we see our little girl we are thankful. For that, she will have a special place in our lives and hearts forever.
What motivates a woman to give the gift of life to a childless couple ? We cannot speak for her, but only remember the ways, when we visited her for the embryo transfer and before the birth, she did everything she could do to ensure the best for our child. Throughout the pregnancy we had videos, e-mails and phone calls where she would tell us all she was experiencing, so we could share in the pregnancy even though we were so far away. How brave of her to do this for a couple all the way across the world !! Now we send her photos, letters and cards, so she can share in our experiences as our little girl grows up. Such a small gesture in return for what she did for us, but one that she really loves.
Not satisfied with one successful surrogacy, which was her second attempt, she has gone on to carry a child for another couple, and is due to give birth this week. What an amazing co-incidence that they will have virtually the same birthdays !! Yet even now she is e-mailing us and remembering our daughter’s birthday. It is with joy that we hear her news about this birth, but with a tinge of sadness, this is because her current pregnancy will end with a fourth C-section, and it will be too dangerous for her to proceed with any further pregnancies.
We still have healthy embryos in storage, and the three of us want to have a baby brother or sister for our girl, but our surrogate mom will not be able to help us. At the time of our IVF treatment, we had no friend or relative in Australia who could safely carry our baby, and any other form of surrogacy in Australia was illegal, so we had to search in the USA. But the world today is a different world to five years ago, when we carried frozen embryos in a large canister as hand baggage onto a Qantas jet, without anyone wanting to X-ray it or to look inside it !! It would be impossible to try to do that now.
However, now we live in the A.C.T., where the law allows altruistic surrogacy under certain conditions, and we are on the search again. We are writing this story in the hope that a woman with her own family may read it and be moved to want to help us create a baby brother or sister for our little girl.
If you believe you can help us then please phone 02 6251 3679 and ask for Henry or Erica. |
An IVF Surrogacy Story
