Morning after our dinner date with our IF's!

How do I sum up our feelings after our wonderful meeting with our IF's last night? ....

I already knew that we loved them just from our 30 minute initial Skype meeting. But meeting them in person just solidified our feelings for them. They are SO deserving of having children of their own. I can see and feel the passion they have for having their own family.

I was so nervous but I kept reminding myself to just be myself. And that's what I did.

We arrived at their apartment that they've been staying at this week in Portland. They invited us in for a quick tour of their temporary space. The view was gorgeous and it was perfect for them while visiting here. They sweetly gifted us with gifts from Paris and for our children as well.

We took them to Pittock Mansion because the view is incredible there. Of course it was freezing, but well worth it! Then we made our way to The Melting Pot. We initially had dinner plans elsewhere but at the last minute Brandon and I thought The Melting Pot would be a fun interactive experience for us to chat and get to know one another.

We loved learning about the guys and how they live in Paris. We are so intrigued with their culture. We are a bit jealous too! We would love to go visit them in 2015 after the babies are born. It would be an incredible experience. It would finally be the 'honeymoon' that we never got, PLUS to have wonderful company as well.

Dinner was entertaining! They talked about how our menus are always pages and books long while in Paris, you don't have as many options. (which makes things a bit easier) It took us awhile to decide on what we wanted and we were just laughing about all the options the waiter was giving us. And how he made it sound so complicated. But overall, we made it through our appetizer, salad, dinner and dessert with success! The guys (including Brandon) shared a bottle of local wine from Willamette Valley.

We all forgot to take pictures at the restaurant so as we were walking to the car in the parking garage we decided to take some. We were laughing so hard about the background. Out of all places to take photos we did it in the parking garage-haha! Better there than never.

They are deciding on an egg donor now and will decide soon. They were given 40 egg donors to choose from with ORM. We are going to be doing a frozen cycle. And will be transferring one embryo from each father. This 'dream' is finally coming to reality slowly but surely. It's hard to believe we're even at this point. I'm excited, nervous, anxious and just so happy to be going through this amazing journey with them.

Brandon and I with our IF's

Me and my IF's

Elora LOVED her gift from them!

We have a whole new reason to love Paris!

The girls loved the gifts they received from them.

Even little Ethan LOVED his Sophie!

She was so happy to wake up and open a gift!

Contract movement & first contact with ORM!

This morning has been a productive morning in my surrogacy world! I got an initial contact e-mail from Oregon Reproductive Medicine (ORM) from the Coordinator's assistant, Nikki that I will be working with. The Coordinator is Marissa. I had to complete a Gynecological Questionnaire for them. I filled it out and scanned & e-mailed it back right away.

Then I received a call from Tabitha from NWSC regarding the first draft of our contract. She will be sending it over to the guys today to review. She connected me with an attorney, Marlene Findling who has been working with IP's and surrogates with NWSC for awhile now. I called her and was able to speak with her right away. She's awesome! Very friendly, understanding and compassionate. Exactly what I had hoped for!

Now we just wait to receive the contract back from the guys attorney and move forward from there.

Tomorrow is the big day! We get to meet the guys in person. Super exciting!

They are on their way to Portland!

I am beyond thrilled that our IF's (intended fathers) are Portland bound! They will be in Portland for almost a week. We are so excited to meet them in person. I added them on Facebook the other day, hoping they didn't mind! I've been chatting with them here and there which is how I know they are on their way here. We have a dinner date with them next Wednesday evening. Location to be determined!

Tonight after work, Brandon and I took the kiddos to the mall to walk around. I did a little bit of shopping and bought our IF's some Oregon goodies! I'm so excited to put it all together. I hope they love it.

We had our first snow fall today! So beautiful. Everyone was freaking out and traffic was a nightmare.

This is the view from our garage this morning

Will keep you updated! I hope we can have a better timeline of everything soon. Still waiting on starting the contract process with NWSC. Hopefully I'll hear something soon!

Until next time....

Surro-Mama Angela

Home Visit & 5 years married!

Well today was a pretty awesome and productive day! We had our 'Home Visit' with the social worker who is with NWSC, her name is Kacey. Our appointment was at 9:30am so we all ate breakfast and Brandon came home from work for the visit.

Kacey arrived around 9:15 and her and I sat down in the living room and talked about the surrogacy and she asked a series of questions. When Brandon arrived, she asked him a few questions. She showed us a great book to get the girls that helps them understand the surrogacy process called "The Kangaroo Pouch: A Story About Gestational Surrogacy for Young Children". Great book for kids! I ordered it right after she left on amazon.com. Gotta love amazon!

She asked us about our day to day routine and how our parenting style is. This part was the longest part of the whole home visit. After we were done chatting, she walked around the house to check things out. As she was making her way back into the living room she asked if we had a housekeeper! She said because the house was so clean and put together well. We took that as a compliment! WE are the housekeepers-haha! Love it. She said she had no concerns and that she would send the report over the NWSC.

Brandon and I have been married for FIVE years today! It seems like only yesterday when we got married. It's crazy how time seriously flys after you have children. We had a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant where we live while my Mom watched our trio for us. They LOVE spending time with their Grandma! And we love it too. These are the best times when they are young and spending quality time with Grandma.

Looking forward to see what's next on the agenda for the surrogacy process.. Until next time!

Surro-Mama Angela

.....And we're MATCHED!!!!!!

I arrived to San Diego safe & sound. Spending time with my Mom and family for the next few days. I'm so glad I was able to book a last minute flight here. I woke up to this beautiful e-mail that started out with this...

 "Good Morning Angela I heard back from F and N and they thought you were a “rockstar” (that is a direct quote)!" So you are all a match!

I am SO thrilled beyond words! It's really starting to feel so real now. The next screening process is to schedule a home visit with a social worker to come out to our home and make sure all is right. I scheduled it for next Friday, November 22nd at 9:30am. That's actually mine and Brandon's 5th wedding anniversary! It's has to be good luck! And now we begin the contract phase. Soon I will be hearing from Tabitha from NWSC to go over the contract. They said it can take anywhere from a couple weeks to a month or more. Hopefully it won't be too much longer. The guys are supposed to be visiting Portland next month in December and we hope to spend some time with them while they are here. They have never been to Portland before. The flight from where they are in France is 15 hours.

So that pretty much sums up my surrogacy week! All very exciting for sure.

Until next time.... Surro-Mama Angela

Our first Match Meeting!

We finally had our first match meeting! We were a bit nervous, but I think it was me more than Brandon. We decided to take our kiddos with us in hopes that they would make it through the Skype call without a meltdown.

On Monday night we found out that my Mom was being admitted into the hospital. Long story short, it all started with bronchitis, she wasn't getting better so she went back in and they diagnosed her with pneumonia by an x-ray they did. So yesterday morning she was swelling more than usual and she had shortness of breath. She went into the emergency room around 2:30 pm. The finally admitted her around 9pm. After running various tests, they found a tumor on her abdomen wall. It was surrounded by lots of fluid. (results still pending) So I booked a flight to go to San Diego after our match meeting because I didn't want to have to reschedule it again. And I'm SO glad we went!

Molly talked to us before we hopped on Skype to meet the guys. She gave us a run down on what we would talk about and how it would go. It's funny because it actually made me even more nervous- haha! Then Molly went into another office to chat with the guys to give them the same run down. After about 10 minutes she came back in and we called them....

We gave a little introduction and went from there! It went so smooth. We talked about expectations and what we were all looking for in this surrogacy journey. It seemed like we were all on the same page with everything. They were super adorable! And I don't just mean by looks. Their personalities were so down to earth and genuine. They so deserve to have their sweet babies! We left feeling on top of the world about it all and it just seemed so much more REAL. Like this journey is totally happening! We're so excited about it!

We gave Molly our "Yes, we love them!" and so now we wait to see how they felt about us. One thing that really meant a lot to me was that they said the day they found out they got their house was the same day they received my profile and they KNEW it was a sign! How sweet is that?! Brandon thought it was super cool.

Until next time...

Surro-Mama Angela

Match Meeting Rescheduled!

A bit of a delay in the process, our match meeting has been rescheduled. But we're completely understanding as things do come up. It has been rescheduled for next Wednesday, November 13th at 11:30am. WOO HOO!

NWSC has been wonderful with this whole process so far! I love them. I'm glad no one is in any rush. Definitely can't rush a journey like this.

Very excited for next week! =)

In the mean time, I have to post a photo of my two youngest babies, Ethan (5 months) and Eliana (2 years).