Snowbabies Enroute...

So our little Snowbabies are finally on their way to India and Dr. B! The shipping company sent the tank to my clinic in NYC last Wednesday, the embryologist loaded my Snowbabies and they were picked up by the shipping company on Friday and are now enroute to India! Estimated arrival: Wednesday August 31...

The EYES are the Window to the SOUL

The Eyes are the Window to the Soul ~Leonardo DaVinci

The Eyes have so much symbolic meaning dating back to Biblical times. In Christianity the Eye of God is depicted hovering over a tent, which is symbolic of the Tabernacle - the temple of the faithful. The eye here represents the omni-present spirit of God peering into the soul of the faithful - ever watchful over those who serve.

In our Dreams the meaning of eyes indicates an opening into a new dimension. This is symbolic of your vision clearing and focusing in on a new direction. It may also indicate your ability to see past what is common and spiritually arrive to the point where your inner vision perceives all things in their divine glory - even the simplest of things become inspired with an exquisite quality inherent in all nature.

Earlier today I received a few Gestational Surrogate Profiles from the Foreign Patient Coordinator at my clinic. I must say emotions were invoked in me today, as I began looking through the profiles of the women who would ultimately be responsible for caring for my baby for 9 months. There is something amazing about looking into someones eyes, when someone looks at your eyes its like they can see everything you've done. They can see compassion, joy, pain, laughter, anger, and hope.

I looked into the eyes of the Gestational Surrogates that were sent to me, looked at their typed profiles (all of them were healthy, fertile and had at least two children) and then looked into their eyes again. I immediately was drawn to one particular Surrogate and in her eyes I saw hope and compassion...




Sending out a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Kerrie and Mark, today is Baby Cailyn's BORN DAY!!!

My First Safe Wire Transfer to India

So, yesterday was a significant day for me and a very nervous one. I did my first international wire transfer to my clinic in India from my bank to their international bank. With so many wire transfer scams out there I was nervous, not about my Dr. or clinic, but just about the fact that I was sending money overseas. Doing a wire transfer with the branch manager at my bank was great and helped calm my nerves. My clinic sent me all of their bank account and SWIFT code information as well as their Intermediary Bank's information here in the US and then the branch manager took care of the rest. I then got a very detailed 2 page receipt about the transaction that I scanned and emailed to my Dr. in India. Here are some great tips from ehow.com on the safest ways to send money overseas:

PayPal
PayPal is among the most recent forms of online technology that send and receive money. Make easy, safe transactions between two parties in two different countries with a verified PayPal account, linked to your credit card or bank account. More than 190 countries are covered by PayPal's payment system. Once you make a payment, the payee receives an email that funds have been received and you are able to track the payments.


Wire Transfers
Wire transfers are known for their safety and enhanced speed. Wire money to a person in any country, provided that the recipient has a valid bank account where the money can be withdrawn. Have all the banking details of the recipient (including account number and bank routing number) in order to make a wire transfer. Send funds by either using cash or by draft from a bank account. A transaction takes two to three days to complete, depending largely on the countries involved.


Western Union
This service is available at various local stores worldwide, with more than 220,000 agent locations in nearly 200 countries. Western Union charges transaction fees but ensures that the payment is secure. Send any amount of money safely, but for sums more than $3,000, you must meet certain security requirements. Online payment is restricted to $999.99 with a 20-day revolving period. You can track the funds sent by a money transfer control number, or MTCN.


USPS International Money Orders
A money order is basically an order for payment of a specified amount of money. It is considered safer than a personal check, as the funds shown on it are prepaid. The United States Postal Service sells these money orders as a third party. An international money order valued up to $700 to 30 countries can be purchased for $3.85.


Cashier's Checks
For the safest way to send a large amount of money using ordinary postal mail, send a cashier's check. They are better than personal checks, as they are prepaid (whereas you have no way of guaranteeing the amount shown on a personal check). The one problem with these checks is that they are usually issued in another currency, so fluctuating market rates can affect your net withdrawal amount.

For Nostalgia's Sake

Back in the day when I was young, I'm not a kid anymore, but some days I sit and wish I was a kid again... ~Ahmad Ali Lewis

Remember back in the day when we were kids and life was so simple? When we didn't have to worry about anything. Not the complexities of adulthood, infertility or trying to start a family? Here are some of my favorite things from when I was a little kid:


Cartoons
My favorite cartoons were the Smurfs and the Thundercats, and I am not ashamed to admit I will be going to see the 2011 Smurfs re-make in 3-D





SITCOM TV SHOWS
Remember when TV shows were positive and used to be about the happy side of family life?

The Cosby Show



Family Matters




Growing Pains




Punky Brewster



TOYS
These were my favorite toys as a kid. Many of these toys are vintage collector's items now and I plan on getting some of them for my future kids...

My Little Pony



Operation



Pound Puppies




Star Wars


Strawberry Shortcake



McDonald's

Didn't you just love to go to McDonald's to see Ronald, Early Bird, Grimace and the Hamburgler? Remember when Ronald and his buddies did all of the McDonald's commercials? McDonald's had the greatest collectors glasses from 80's movies and the best collector's plates.







MOVIES
These were some of my favorite movies as a kid and I still enjoy watching them now!

ET



Gremlins



Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back




Star Wars Return of the Jedi





The Goonies




The Karate Kid

MISSION: SNOWBABIES

Good Morning, CocoaMasala. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, involves the recovery of 9 Snowbabies in New York City. The third team member you must select is Mr. Greg Leadbeater from Core Cryolab. He is a civilian and a highly capable professional cryogenic shipper who is capable of shipping your embryos to India. You have until the end of August to recruit Mr. Leadbeater and meet me in New York City to receive your next assignment. This message will self- destruct in five seconds.

WE ACCEPT THIS MISSION:

#1: Go to clinic A in New York City, sign release papers and hand carry 2 Snowbabies to Clinic B

#2 Once at Clinic B pay the storage fees for 7 Snowbabies, give them the paperwork for the 2 Snowbabies from Clinic B and let them know Greg Leadbeater will be arranging shipment to India

#3 Contact Greg Leadbeater and pay the invoice that he previously sent us and he begins the contact between Clinic B in New York City and Clinic C in India


#4 All 9 of our Snowbabies will be shipped and tracked by Mr. Leadbeater and God willing will arrive safely to Dr. B in India


Stay Tuned...

Zen-Like

zen. noun. Complete and absolute peace.

It has taken a while to get to this point, but I am finally here. I can finally say that although I have been on a long and difficult journey trying to stay pregnant I am at peace about using a gestational carrier. My Dr. here in the U.S. has diagnosed me with an immune issue where my body is attacking its own cells and I have had a total of five miscarriages in a row in the past three years, but on a positive note we seem to make great quality embryos that make it to the blastocyst stage. I could undergo extensive immune treatment here in the States, but Brian and I agreed that we have no idea what type of impact or long term side effects these drugs will have on my body or overall health. What's more I am honestly tired of treatments and I am tired of putting my body through miscarriage after miscarriage. I have tried everything from Predisone, Dexthamethasone to Lovenox. The only reason I would undergo IVF again is strictly to create more embryos to transfer into a Gestational Surrogate.

Regarding India, we have finally chosen a Dr. and clinic!!! We have 9 frozen embryos, and we will be shipping them to India via Greg at Core Cryolabs at the end of the summer. Although I can't seem to carry a baby to full term, I am thankful for the gestational surrogacy options in India that will still allow me to have a biological child, even if he/she grew in my heart. Congrats to Chai Baby and Gemma on the birth of their adorable twins, and congrats to Sequined Saree Dreams on your recent Big Fat Positive!

Surrogate Surge!

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban welcomed daughter Faith Margaret via Gestational Surrogate this past December and they are among a new wave of parents who realize Gestational Surrogacy is a viable way to have a biological child.

On Christmas Day, Elton John and partner David Furnish became fathers to a baby boy.John, 63, and Furnish, 48, reportedly consulted with another celebrity couple, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, about the joys and pitfalls of surrogacy. Parker, 45, and Broderick, 48, used another woman's womb to carry their twin girls, Marion and Tabitha, born in June 2009.

More recently, actor Neil Patrick Harris, 37, and his partner David Burtka welcomed fraternal twins -- boy Gideon Scott and girl Harper Grace -- by a surrogate last October. Earlier, in July, Portuguese soccer star and international sex symbol Cristiano Ronaldo, 25, became dad to a baby boy with the help of an unnamed American woman he paid to be a surrogate.

Finally Gestational Surrogacy seems to be gaining social acceptance and I think Nicole sums it up best when she says, "Our family is truly blessed, and just so thankful, to have been given the gift of baby Faith Margaret," the family says in a statement. "No words can adequately convey the incredible gratitude that we feel for everyone who was so supportive throughout this process, in particular our gestational carrier."