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About Me

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Caledonia, Northern Illinois, United States
I am a Thirty-Something mother of four beautiful girls. My love for them, and the joy I've experienced during this crazy ride called motherhood, has inspired me to help make the dream of a family become a reality for couples through gestational surrogacy. I've proudly helped A&T, as their lives were forever changed when they welcomed a son in April 2010 and K&S were blessed as parents in Sept 2012 when we welcomed their twin boys. I completed my final surrogacy journey Nov 2015 when I helped a wonderful local couple J&W and Big Brother add their family with the birth of twin boys. I am so very fortunate to have wonderful relationships with each one of my surro-families and continue to share in their lives.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

New Beginnings - The Start of GSx3

This blog entry has been a difficult one for me to piece together.  I'm excited to share what's ahead but a lot has transpired in the last couple of months and I don't want to be so incredibly wordy that no one gets to the end of this post.

I'll start with a quick summary of the last year .  A few times throughout my journey with K&S they expressed how happy they were to be expecting twins so that they would not have to go through the very emotional experience of IVF and surrogacy again.  They would have a beautiful family of four and two little boys who had one another as lifelong friends.  However, not long after Ryan and Mason were born, they brought up the topic of a sibling and for the last year we've all entertained the possibility of another journey.

Now lets go even further back ... when I was 30 weeks along with the boys a hopeful Intended Mother reached out to me looking for guidance through the process of surrogacy and curious to know if I had plans to carry again.  Of course at the time, VERY pregnant with twins, I was uncertain what the future held but knew that if I were able I would complete another journey.  In short, I couldn't really answer her question but I was more than willing to help her and her husband navigate the often overwhelming world of surrogacy.  We kept in touch, months went by ... they contacted the agency (FSC) I had used both of my previous journeys hoping to find a local match.  While waiting, she went through a couple of ER cycles hoping to have embryos ready to go when they did find their Angel.  This past fall they successfully created "maybe babies" that were frozen in hopes to transfer them to a GS in the future.

As the year has flown by the idea of a journey in the upcoming year has become questionable for K&S, their dose of double trouble is keeping them very busy!  On my end, the more time that passed the more anxious and ready I've become.  My original thought was that I wanted to start next fall, then I thought summer, then spring ... then I realized, I was ready now!  Surrogacy is such a huge part of who I am and I was becoming restless with the idea of waiting, but also didn't want to pressure them or give a deadline.

As the other couples journey began to unfold we continued to stay in touch and I felt more and more connected to this IM.  I wanted to do more than just help them navigate surrogacy - I wanted to be their surrogate, but still felt committed to K&S.  I reached out to K again wanting her thoughts and decided, that if in time they wanted to add to their family I'd be happy to carry again for them, but that I would regret not exploring the possibility of working with the wonderful IM I had been in touch with and had developed a relationship with over the last year.  That was late October.

After making my decision things moved quickly.  I excitedly told them I would be their surrogate!!!  They were excited as well but cautious because we had one major hurdle to overcome, my grand multipapa status and getting the RE's approval.  My pregnancy/delivery records were reviewed and without issue, I was given the go ahead to schedule a med/psych evaluation. Everything still hinged on the saline u/s and the condition of my uterus, especially since my last delivery had been by c/s.  Yesterday I got the thumbs up and was told everything looked "beautiful".  I even left with a cycle calendar, med schedule and transfer date - very exciting!  We've already retained attorneys so the next step is to get contracts finished so that I can start meds mid January for our February 20th FET.   That's less than 8 weeks away!

So with that news ...



We are all very eager and I can't wait to tell you more about this wonderful couple, share the story of how they came to surrogacy, and the journey that will hopefully bring a miracle to this very special family.

Baby Steps,
Tiffany

5 comments:

Ellie Hartzell said...

Tiffany, I am amazed and awed by your selflessness!! I will happily pray for you through this journey, may the Lord's hand guide everyone along this miraculous ride!! Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!

Tracey Swanson said...

So happy for you all, you are such a blessing to these people!

Michael said...

I love following your surrogacy journeys and I'm excited to know you'll be helping out another set of IPs. Looking forward to more great news in 2014.

Kim said...

Yay! Congrats! So exciting to hear, I can't wait to follow along again! Love reading your posts, they really are inspiring! Looking forward to what's to come! :)

Andrea said...

We have very similar stories. I'm so excited to follow another journey with you!!