A year ago we started praying...even though we're not very religious. We ate sticky foods hoping that would make the embryos stick. We even ate Life cereal. I was willing to try anything after two failed attempts.
A few weeks later the amazing news came that my surrogate was pregnant with twins. I still was scared things wouldn't work. We did a total of three beta tests and every time I was panicked that the numbers wouldn't be what I wanted -- but they were. Then we had the fear of the first trimester, fear during the ultrasounds making sure the babies were growing fine, and the fear of making it to viability. Then the day of the birth came which was filled with both excitement and anxiety hoping both my children and Chloe would be OK.
In the past year I also got to have a wonderful baby shower and an amazing outpouring of help and love from friends and family. I got to make four people grandparents (and two of them became grandparents for the first time), my brother became an uncle (for the first time) and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law became an aunt and uncle. Their children were excited to hear news of their cousins. My sister-in-law explained to her older child how two uncles would make cousins for him and, after hearing how this works, he excitedly called to his little brother, "Did you hear? We're going to have new cousins!!! They took an egg and put fertilizer on it!"
This past year I also got to celebrate (through the web) the birth of so many children through surrogacy. I hope this year brings even more good news for those of you out there still trying.
These past twelve months have, of course, been life changing. This picture below shows the reason I am broke, sleep-deprived, getting gray hair and yet 100% happy, fulfilled and thrilled with my life.
