The IM's Announcement on Facebook

As some of you know(and some of you don't know) ___ and I have been trying to have a baby for several years now. After several unsuccessful attemps at in vitro fertilization, we had come to the conclusion that we would not go through that whole process again.This past summer a precious woman who I knew from my church called me out of the blue and asked me if I had ever considered surrogacy as an option of having a child .She told me that she and her husband and children had been talking and praying about this for some time. She was offering to carry our child!! I was completely blown away by this, and I still am today!! After doing some research on gestational surrogacy, talking with my family and diligently praying about all of this , ___ and I decided that we wanted to do this and we see this as a great blessing from God. My friend and surrogate, Heidi, was examined by my fertility doctor and he immediately thought she was a great candidate to carry our child.We were thrilled!!From my previous attempts at in vitro we were left with one single blastocyst ( a five day fertilized egg) so we had only this ONE shot to transfer that single egg and pray that it would first thaw without being damaged(which sometimes happens) and second that it would implant. Again, God was in this all as everything turned out perfectly and now we are HAVING A BABY!!!!!As of now Heidi is 11 weeks pregnant. We have had 2 sonograms so far and the baby shows a very strong heartbeat!!! Praise God!!I am very thankful to everyone who has been praying for my dear friend, Heidi, and to those who have been praying for ___ and me. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and I'll keep everyone posted.

Thanksgiving!

Thank you Father.

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart:
I will recount of your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in You:
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
Psalm 9:1-2

Thanksgiving! This holiday/vacation was filled with so many reasons to be thankful and rejoice in our Creator and His love for us.

• Family time
• Seeing my parents So happy
• Seeing David's parents So happy
• Connor getting Baptised
• Good Food
• Only getting sick once
• The love and support of my sisters of me in this journey
• ...

While there I was given was encouragement about this journey. An extended family member surprised me with her reaction in finding out that David and I are acting surrogates. This wonderful and loving mother of two boys, God given/adopted, told me that what we are doing is a good thing (not her words). I did not know why it was that they chose adoption. I found out it was because of not being able to carry to full-term, she had suffered three loses. To hear her heart in talking about this journey, I found it to be God telling me this is what he wants me to be doing.

God is always speaking! Just listen. He is always there, in everything we do. He is even with us in the things we would rather He not know about. HE IS THERE!

"IF you hold on to ME for dear life," says God, "I will get you out of any trouble. I'll give the best of care if you'll only get to know ME and trust ME. Call ME and I'll answer, be at your side in bad times; I'll rescue you, then throw a party. I'll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation!"

Dr Stuart Pancer

So today was the day I got to go to the OB and be the patient. Up until now they have always treated me like a piece of meat and the IM as the patient. It was a little weird because the IM kept trying to answer the questions I was supposed to answer. I just waited my turn.

Dr Pancer is amazing. I would recommend him to anyone looking for a OB/GYN. So super nice and reassuring. This appointment was short and awesome. No "derobing" involved. He tried to find the heartbeat with the doppler, but couldn't (TOO early). 10 weeks today. To reassure the IM he ran a very short ultrasound so we could hear the heartbeat.

I am so blessed.

Continue to pray for the IM. I know there are still some parts of this that are difficult for her.
The stigma that is a part of infertility appears to be so overwhelming. In a situation like this when she arrives at church with a baby without having been pregnant. When I show up at church without a baby after being pregnant, people are going to know. Why not tell people now so they get more accustomed to the idea. Telling people sooner will allow them to support and pray for her. PLEASE pray for her.