While I’ve always been curious and fascinated by surrogacy, I never truly thought about it as something I, myself, would be able to do. It wasn’t until after I had my first daughter and I had made more friends who were in same sex relationships, that it started coming up in conversation; I would semi-jokingly offer to carry a baby for them. They would laugh and say they’d think of me first if they ever decided to try to have a baby. But those conversations are what truly planted the seed that surrogacy could be an actual possibility. Fast forward a bit and I was bringing home my youngest daughter, knowing our family was complete. After many talks with my husband about whether or not we were sure we did not want to add any more children to our family, we decided that, yes, our family was complete. But even though I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was happy with our family at the size that it was, that I did not want any more babies of my own, a piece my heart was breaking at the thought of never being pregnant again. And so sparked my research into being a surrogate. A few words typed into google and a few more clicks later and I was requesting more information from NYSC. I applied within a few days of starting my research and my journey towards surrogacy had officially begun!
After submitting my application, I slowly checked things off the list to get matched: bloodwork, a background check, a checkup/pap smear with my OB, urine drug screen, clearance from my neurologist, submit my health insurance to make sure its surrogacy friendly, and obtain a life insurance policy. Throughout each and every step NYSC was right by my side, offering guidance and answering all of my many questions without making me feel like I was being forced or in any way annoying. And even though it took a while to get everything checked off my list (COVID played a part in scheduling delays for appointments, plus I was back to working full time, moved to a different town, and also had my family so it took a about a year or so to get it all done) I never felt pressure from NYSC to get anything done faster than when I was ready/able to do it.
