Introducing my IP's!

WHAT?!?! I was reading my last few posts, and realized I never updated you guys on the biggest news ever...we are officially matched!!! In my defense, I did do an excited all-caps shout-it-from-the-rooftops Facebook status last week. :)

So yes...the very first profile we received turned out to be a perfect match! They love us, we love them, and we are all in a little bit of disbelief how well this has worked out. Kudos to our social worker at Circle and her incredible matching skills. They really know what they are doing over there!

We now have a journey coordinator, who will guide us through the rest of this surrogacy experience. I spoke with her on Friday morning while she was on lockdown in her Boston home (scary!!), and she explained that the next step for me will be traveling to the IVF clinic in Connecticut for my medical screening appointment. This is a quick trip, just overnight, and Austin will also be going to have lab work done as well. The only thing that has me nervous about this appointment is the flying. I have been on a plane 3 times in my life (well, I guess 6 if you count the return flight) and the last time was about 12 years ago. The scariest thing at that time was the flying--now of course, there's a lot more things to worry about! Yikes. I'm trying not to think about it all, but it's hard not to with the Boston tragedies this week. Anyway, our information has also been provided to the agency's legal team, who will spend the next 4 weeks or so drafting up our carrier agreement. We can't begin any IVF medications or anything like that until the contract is finalized.

We Skyped with the guys again this morning and have been emailing back and forth all week. I double-checked with them again to make sure they were okay with me revealing just a tiny bit of information about them on my blog. I wish I could share more with you, because some of you have expressed that you are dying for details, but I can't share much before we have completed our carrier agreement. So here's just a little taste to get you by until then...

INTRODUCING S & J!!!!!

Don't laugh! I can't share a picture yet, so this is all you get for now.

I assure you they are way more adorable when they aren't in clip art form.

And yes, they already have a son. :)

They live in Sweden!

Thank you for your amazing education, Florida public school system...

This straight-A student had to Google it just to know for sure where Sweden was on the map.

S was born and raised in Italy, while J is originally from Sweden. They are in their 30's and are both smart, successful, funny, and friendly. Hooray for awesome daddies!

We are hoping to have a standing Skype date on Sunday mornings, sometimes the 6 hour time difference makes things a little tricky. Last week I was Skyping with J, and my 4 year old Madi was sitting with me. It was late afternoon here, which means it was dark in Sweden. J was trying to explain to Madi that it was already nighttime where he was. She was baffled by this, so he took the iPad out on the balcony, and held it so she could see the black sky and the moon. She said, "Ohhhhh, I like your moon!" How funny is that?! I tried to explain that it's the same moon we have, but even as an adult, it's hard for me to wrap my head around that concept. :)

The kids tend to monopolize the screen when we do the family Skype calls, so us grown-ups don't get much talking in. But it's so fun for my entire family to be able to interact with their family, even though we are 4,600 miles away from each other! That's pretty amazing!

Ooo! Ooo! Pick Me!

Pick me! Pick me!

(You can't see me right now, but I am raising my hand as far in the air as I can, waving it around, and bouncing up and down in my seat.)

As you can probably tell, my Skype call with the guys today went great! Besides some Skype technical difficulties in the beginning, everything went smoothly. They were so friendly and so easy to talk to, I think it seemed awkward for maybe the first nanosecond of the call. I'm so glad Austin was able to be here too, and it worked out that we were able to chat while my big girl was at school and my little girl was napping. The four of us talked for an hour and a half!

From what I can tell, their relationship seems a lot like mine and Austin's. They were lovingly playful and teasing of each other, and seemed to have a solid friendship as the base of their relationship. We all four seemed to get along great, and they are definitely the kind of people we could see ourselves being friends with. We seemed to all be on the same page, and very flexible and laid back in our visions of the surrogacy.

My favorite part was when one of the guys asked a personal question about our sex life while being pregnant. We didn't blush at all, but the other guy looked so embarrassed. :) I was happy to answer any questions they had, so I'm glad he felt comfortable asking!

Towards the end of our call, one of the guys "introduced" me to his brother and his future sister-in-law by taking the computer into another room. I loved it. :)

Apparently, I'm going to have an overuse of smiley faces in this post. :)

I let the social worker know right away (like the second I got off of Skype) that we definitely felt like they were a "match" for us! I hope they feel the same way! I shared with them my blog website, so they could check things out and make sure they felt comfortable with me blogging about our journey together. So in case they're reading this...hi guys! :)

Big Day Tomorrow!

Tomorrow morning, I will be completing the last part of my application process, the MMPI test! That should last about an hour and a half, and then just two hours later, Austin and I will be Skyping with the IP's!! They are 6 hours ahead of us, so I'm glad we were able to find a time so quickly that worked with everyone's schedule!

I asked the social worker if the guys have an egg donor yet, and she said she believes they just chose one this week. So that's a big deal for them! That means in a span of a few days, they may have found their egg donor and surrogate! I'm so excited for them!

It's Here!!!

I officially have, in my hands, right now....

A PROFILE FOR INTENDED PARENTS!!!!

So far, the general consensus is....

I'M IN LOVE!!!

Thirteen pages, and I love all of it. I'm dying to share details, but can't yet, because we aren't officially matched. Right now, the IP's are going over my profile too. We both have about three days to look it all over and decide if we'd like to take the next step, which would be a Skype meeting. If we are both still ready to proceed after the Skype meeting, then we are considered officially matched!

I'm trying not to get too excited because just because I like them, doesn't mean they'll like me. But if they don't, that's okay...that means the perfect IP's are still out there!

Oh, and this Friday will be the last part of the application process for me...the MMPI test! I'm more curious than nervous about that one...I've researched and chatted with other surrogates who have taken this test, and some of the questions have really piqued my interest. Obviously, I plan on being completely truthful, but what about the questions that may be a little subjective?

Like "I engage in unusual sexual behaviors."

Are my only options "True" or "False?"

Or can I choose Option C...."Ummmmm.....unusual compared to.....can you give some examples???"

This should be fun. ;)