Bringing Family Moments to Life: A Holiday Story Part III

And it happened; it actually happened!  Terry and Jim were matched with their Surrogate!  Jennifer had passed the psychological and medical screening, Terry and Jim had gotten their Gestational Service Agreement down to a tee, as did Jennifer and Mathew. Both couples felt relaxed because they each had their own lawyers, they both discussed every little detail that either was brought to their attention by Omega and their years of experience, or things that had been concerning to the couple. For example, what happened if Jennifer became pregnant with twins? Would that be treated differently? Were there going to be more risks?  It was a possibility because in Jim’s family twins were common.

The day had finally arrived and Jennifer was excited. Today was the big day all four of them had been waiting for. It was the Embryo Transfer. Today she would go to the IVF clinic and go through the short procedure. The Omega team had told her that she would have to rest for the next few weeks and once the embryo had attached she would be good to go… Pregnancy as usual. Jennifer and Mathew’s children were going to be taken care of by Mathew’s parents and Terry was going to take Jennifer to the clinic.

Not everything went as according to planned, Terry’s car broke down and she was not going to be able to take Jennifer to the appointment. Jennifer drove over to the clinic and Terry arrived by Uber. Terry wanted to make sure that she was there with Jennifer and she wanted to drive Jennifer back, just because that way she would be better taken care of. The procedure went according to planned and Jennifer claimed that she didn’t feel a thing. Terry even got Jennifer a t-shirt that said “Keep calm. It’s embryo transfer day”.

The next milestone would be when the doctors affirmed that the embryo had attached and that the pregnancy would go as normal. Now all they could do was wait.

Terry and Jim remained active in their community, and they hosted a fitness run to lower BMI’s. They had noticed that an important parameter required for Surrogates is that they meet a BMI indicator, that is equal to or lower than 32. Jim knew that people associate high BMI with being fat, but that is not 100% accurate. The purpose of this run was to engage people in the process of understanding that BMI measures the healthy relationship between body fat and the persons height. You can have a high weight, but you must also be tall. The shorter you are, the lower your weight should be.

Jennifer and Mathew carried on as usual. They had two boys, one of two and the other of four. It was quite the crazy age where they are everywhere in one place. The boys were partially aware of what was happening regarding the Surrogacy. Jennifer and Mathew had introduced their boys to Terry and Jim, so that they would be familiar to the boys. There were times where Terry and Jim would baby sit the boys.  Both families would enjoy activities together such as being present at the BMI race.

News! Good News! Excellent News!!!The embryo attached!

Both families were ecstatic. Terry and Jim’s faith congregation prayed for the well being of their child and organized Terry’s first baby shower. This surprised both Jennifer and Mathew because there is so much unknown regarding Surrogacy that it is more common that people criticize or shun it, than embrace it. At work Jennifer’s had to explain time and time again, that the baby that she was carrying was not her own. At first this made her feel uncomfortable, but with the support of Omega and the Larsons, she was able to provide her colleagues and management with the information. This helped by suppressing un-supportive communication towards her. She even had someone say that she was a womb-renter. If they only knew that what she was doing was bringing family moments to life.

Time passed by, and Jennifer could not be happier. The baby was growing, her boys (all of them) were very supportive of her pregnancy and her cravings. One time, they were at a baseball game and she had an unstoppable craving for a funnel cake. Her little boys were thrilled with that one, because they all shared on it. It’s not like the time she had craving for pickled liver with brussels sprouts. One thing that Jennifer enjoyed about being pregnant were the perks that she got for being pregnant. Her favorite perk? Parking. She could now access convenient parking when she went to the mall or to other places like the supermarket.

Summer was passing by and fall was coming close. Jennifer had gone to all her appointments, thankfully she had Omega to remind her when she forgot. Terry had helped her come up with a great diet that would be good for her and for the baby, so she was in a perfect state of health.

Jennifer’s husband Matthew had done the most amazing thing, he had set apart one day once a month where, with the stipend for care that Omega gave them, he had a baby sitter for the kids and he would take Jennifer out on a date. This way he would get her undivided attention and they could just be together. That was important.  He had seen how Jennifer had sighed when Terry and Jim had mentioned their date night ritual, and decided to do something special for his wife.