09.29.07
Woo hoo!
It looks like M and I will get to meet up on Monday for lunch without anyone else around. We may get to talk about stuff yet. 
I know we don’t have to decide anything right now, but it will make me feel better to know if we’ll be heading that direction or not. KWIM?
Getting to know you…
Thursday night DH and I met up with our potential GS (M) and her family. Now, DH is aware that the possibility of working together has been mentioned, but that’s the extent of it.
At any rate, we ended up staying at the restaurant for more than 2 hours, which to me says we were getting along quite nicely. Granted, the kids started to get bored, but what do you expect from a 4th grader and a 6th grader? They really don’t sit still that long (by the end the 4th grader was dancing between the tables!). 
After the evening was over and we were on our way home DH said “We should have them over to play Wii. I think the kids would have fun.” I’m very pleased that we all seemed to get along really well. Her DH (F) is trained to be a fire fighter and EMT, while mine (N) is an RN. Both seem to find medical stuff fascinating, and agree that fighting fires is just plain fun. As F was talking about fighting fires he was like a big kid. It was funny to watch. Prior to that he was very quiet, but I guess he relaxed and felt more comfortable with us.
Our oven should be fixed soon and I was thinking that we should either have them over and grill burgers or something, or have build-your-own pizzas. I think the kids would enjoy it and it would be a fun activity to do together. That is, if we can clear off the table enough to be able to eat at it. I really need to work this weekend on unpacking. N doesn’t seem like he’s going to do much. He’s too busy working on finishing the paint job in his game room.
Overall I’m pleased with the way things are going. M and I still haven’t had a chance to really talk about surrogacy, but I thought about inviting her over for lunch on Monday, since I have the day off and her kids should be at school. I figure that would give us more of an opportunity to talk. Right now I’m not positive how I feel. I like her very much as a friend, but I’m still unsure if we’re a good match for a journey. As I mentioned before, she intends to do a c-section again, where I’d prefer a vaginal (natural) birth. And, while I realize that I’m overly adicted to my email and have way more time on my hands, there have been a few times that it’s taken awhile to get a reply from her when I’ve emailed. I would hope that would be different if we’re working on a journey, and I figure I can always call her if I don’t hear from her, but it’s just another concern I have. We shall see. I’m just glad we have plenty of time to get to know each other and decide if this really IS the right match for us.
09.25.07
Moved in
Well, we’re completely moved in. At least, our stuff is all here at the new house. We may not be able to locate all of that stuff at the moment, due to having just about everything in boxes, but at least we’re done with the packing. Now it’s just the unpacking we have to do… We’re finding that even though we moved into a bigger house, we actually have less storage space. Which is a bummer considering DH is a total pack rat. I wonder if he’d notice if I just got rid of a few of his “sentimental” boxes that he didn’t even open before moving them… Probably not, but I guess I’m not that mean.
My PGS and I have emailed back and forth a little bit, and both want to try to get together this week, but I’m starting to wonder if that will happen. I found out that my sister-in-law will be coming to down on Friday, and we’re supposed to go out to dinner with DH’s former step-sister on Saturday. Maybe we can plan soemthing for Thursday night, but we’ll have to see. I’d love to invite them over to our house, but I’m not sure I will have cleared away enough boxes by then. Right now both the dining room and breakfast nook tables are covered with boxes. That would make it awful difficult to eat. We may have to wait for next week. Or go out. Although she did invite us to go over to their place. We’ll see. I haven’t heard from her in a couple of days, so she may have gotten busy too.
Not much else going on. The dogs seem to be adjusting to the move fairly well, though they are still getting used to the new place, I can tell. I think they like it, though. At least, the big one seems to love doing laps in the living room and running in the back yard if I’m out there with him. I think it’s good that we’ve got the space for him to exercise now. I’m going to try to be better about playing with him outside now that we’ve got the space.
Time to get to bed. Morning comes awful early these days. At least I have a four day weekend!
09.16.07
A good start
My potential GS and I met today for lunch. She had her kids with her, which she kept appologizing for, but I really enjoyed meeting them. They are sweet kids, energentic, and not shy at all. I loved getting to meet them and see her interact with them.
We did get to talk a little bit about surrogacy, but never really talked particulars about matching, which is probably for the best. I think we’re both taking it slowly, since we know there’s plenty of time to make a decision. She asked me about what our timeline is looking like, and I explained that I’m hoping for next summer. She didn’t indicate where that would work in her plans, but I do know she’s said that she wants to try for another in about a year. So I assume that would work for her. We also talked about the fact that she had a c-section with the twins and I asked her if she would want to vbac or if she’d do another c-section. She said her OB told her she could vbac, but she’s thinking she’d rather just do another c-section. She kind of liked knowing when the babies would come and being able to plan around it. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I mean, on the one hand I like the thought of knowing for sure when the baby would be delivered, but on the other hand I am a strong advocate for natural childbirth when possible. Of course, I would never force anyone to do something they didn’t want to do, but I’ve always thought natural was best, which is why I was so proud of my sister when she delivered my nephew without drugs. I’m not opposed to a c-section delivery, of course. Especially since she’s had one already. I just wouldn’t want to do one solely for the purpose of scheduling the delivery.
We’ve both said we’ll ease the husbands into the picture slowly. Maybe we can have them over after a couple of months or so. I’m excited, but cautiously. I know that there’s still a lot to talk about to make sure we’ll be a match, but so far I love her. I made sure to let her know that I want to be completely involved, even to the point of being able to watch/wait for HPT results with my GS rather than waiting to find out in an email or through a picture. She says that, while she doesn’t need her IPs at every appointment, she thinks it is nice for them to be able to, which is why she’s hoping for another local couple.
I think things went fairly well. While we didn’t talk about particulars, we were very comfortable together and I really love the fact that she’s only about 15 minutes from me. And the fact that she’s had two journeys before (one ended in miscarriage and the couple decided not to try again) means she will know what to expect and it should be easier to do this independently. I know at some point we’ll have to talk money and such, which I dread, but I figure that would be better to do when her kids aren’t there. Though they are completely comfortable with surrogacy talk, and even asked “Mommy, are you going to carry a baby for her?” I thought it was great that they are so comfortable with it all. Her kids really were great, which helps make me even more comfortable with her.
Meeting of the minds
I know I haven’t posted in quite a while, but every “free” moment has been spent packing for the move, or painting at the new house. Today will be more of the same, BUT I have a lunch “date” with a potential GS! She and I know each other from our online support group (we met in person 9 months ago, while she was still pregnant with her previous surro-twins). I’ve told my husband that we’re meeting, but didn’t really say why. Is that bad? I feel guilty. I didn’t mean to leave that out. When I started to tell him about my lunch plans we got distracted by other things, and he didn’t sound very interested. I’m not committing to her right now or anything, we just thought it might be good to get together and talk, since we’re both looking to do a journey in about a year. If things go well, I’ll make sure she meets the rest of the family (and of course, I’ll meet hers… Come to think of it, I wonder if she plans to bring her kids with her?). We’ve got plenty of time to make sure this is the right thing for all of us (including our families) so there’s no rush… But I can’t help be excited!
She was so cute Friday. When she emailed the group, she slipped in a comment about “meeting a good friend” on Sunday. With a big ol’ smiley. Then when she emailed me privately, she said she’d put in a “hidden innuendo” that no one but me should get. As far as I can tell, no one did. When I replied back to the group I said I hoped she had fun with her friend. I was tempted to put in a winky face, but know that would make it way too obvious. Who knows if this will work out. However, I’ve dreamed for a long time that I’d meet someone on TOSS who lived really close (she’s about 10 minutes from our new house) so I could feel like I was completely involved. I know she’s aware of how psycho I am, since I’ve mentioned it several times on the group. I’m very hopeful that things are going to go well.
I guess I should stop rambling and get some packing done. Otherwise we’ll still have a house full of junk to deal with up to moving day (this Thursday!) and I really don’t want to deal with that!
