How it came to be... Surrogate Side

I had always wanted to be a surrogate.  Well, maybe not always, but for a very long time.  The desire surfaced at the age of about 20 after I had a doctor tell me that I may or may not be able to conceive children.  From that moment, I decided that if I could indeed have children of my own, I wanted to be able to help a family less fortunate do the same via surrogacy.  I was so passionate about this that I even mentioned it to my serious boyfriend at the time (who ended up lucky enough to marry me) as something that I wanted to pursue after creating a family of my own.  What a great guy I had - he was on board!! WooHoo!

Although it was never really mentioned again, it was still always in the back of my mind.  My husband and I went on to get married and have 2 very precious and incredibly gorgeous children - a boy and a girl; our quintessential American family.  Much to our disbelief, I was able to conceive VERY easily.  So easily that our 2nd child was a bit of a "surprise" I guess you could say.  My son was only 9 months old when we learned of our newest journey.  We welcomed the surprise with open arms (after shedding a few tears of "what?" "how?" "can we do this?" of course).  We got through it and wouldn't have changed a thing.

It had been about a year and a half since giving birth to my daughter when I finally felt "ready" to begin looking into becoming a surrogate.  I broached the topic with my husband who was kind of caught off guard with it.  He explained that he thought that I had forgotten about it.  I quickly told him I hadn't and reminded him that he was supportive of it before we were even married.  I respect his reservations -- we have a family now to think of, you are an integral part of our family; the kids need you, what if this doesn't work out?, what if you become ill?, what if....?  My answer to his concerns was simple: I want to do this.  I want to help a family share in the gift we were so blessed to receive from God - becoming parents.  It took some convincing and reassurance, but he ultimately got on board once again and gave me his blessing to proceed.

I began researching agencies for surrogacy.  I was astounded by the numerous possibilities.  I was overwhelmed, but eager to do this.  I knew what I wanted out of this journey and for whom I wanted to do this.  I just needed the right agency to find the family for me.  Although there are several options for surrogacy agencies, I kept going back to the same website - over and over and over again.  I felt a connection.  And that is what I needed.

At about 1pm on August 23, 2012, I submitted my application to become a gestational carrier with Circle Surrogacy.