Time Passages-Part 1

I have decided to chronicle how our family story began. I want to have a place where all of my thoughts/journals are together. One day when I print this blog into a book, the boys will be able to look back from the beginning.

So here is how our Family began...



May 5, 2004 "A Wonderful Offer"

This is not exactly where things began but this is the day things changed for the better. I thought this would be a good place to recap Matt's and my journey through infertility. Matt and I were married on August 7, 1999. We started trying to conceive about 6 months after we were married. For those of you that don't know me as well, I have always loved babies and children so I envisioned a huge family for Matt and I. We soon learned one of life's toughest lessons...Things don't always work out the way you plan them.

After a year of trying to conceive, we contacted a specialist. Over the next couple of years we went from doctor to doctor trying to find an answer to our infertility. The hardest part is that no one was able to give us an exact reason. We went ahead and tried multiple invitro fertilizations (IVF's). Each cycles was either negative or I would have miscarriages very early in the pregnancy.

Matt and I thought we would give it one more shot, and decided to go out to Colorado. Dr. Schoolcraft is one of the top infertility doctors in the world. We had our hopes up, but unfortunately on May 5, 2004 we got the dreaded call from the nurse that the cycle was negative. At this point we started to research other paths to parenthood.

This brings me to the title "A wonderful offer". Matt's sister Lisa proposed a wonderful offer to us. Lisa has been happily married to Chris for 9 years and has three beautiful children Olivia (7yrs old), Elizabeth (5yrs old) and Caroline (3yrs old). So you can see she already has her hands full. Lisa approached Matt and I, after she had heard of our most recent negative result, about possibly becoming a gestational carrier for us. Matt and I were extremely overwhelmed at first. How could someone be so unselfish and offer so much to us? We sat down with Chris and Lisa to discuss the details and we all agreed to give it a go ahead. I was very excited to get started with the process but also very worried for what Lisa and her family would have to endure.

To be continued...