Moving on up....

A few updates because things are starting to happen!

I talked to E today via skype to chat about some upcoming changes with our family.  He told me that L has her first scan on Monday, January 26.  This is what they consider a baseline scan to make sure ovaries are currently quiet.  From there they start the stimulating drugs to get the ovaries to mature many eggs at one time and many scans will be done between now and the time of retrieval.  More about this after I get a med schedule to share with you from the RE that L will be following! 

The next big news is that our family is on the move this summer.  It was expected and yet unexpected at the same time.  This summer was our planned rotation as we have been here for nearly 3 years.  With my husband in the military, we have been blessed with 5 moves in 6 years!  It has been exciting I guess you could say!  We hoped to stay in place until the end of the surrogacy but we had discussed the potential to move before officially matching!  We will be moving to Northern Virginia (Just over the river from Maryland)

What does this mean for surrogacy? 

• The baby will be born in a different state. (yeah that was obvious!) 
• We will have our contract done in North Carolina before pregnancy is attempted.
• Once we move, we will have an amendment done for the contract for the state in which I plan to deliver in.
• A much easier travel itinerary for E&L when they are coming from the UK because we will be within 15 minutes of Reagan Airport, 40 minutes from Dulles and an hour to Baltimore Airport.  The first two have metros that come within 10 minutes of base.
• Where we currently are would require the flights from the UK, then another flight or two to get to us here which could potentially be several additional hours or a 6 hour drive.  
• Insurance will likely need to change once I move but it could stay in place-- Depends on how far 'out of range' we are for the current plan.
• Maryland is a very surrogacy friendly state which could allow for a much easier legal process for the Intended Parents to get their baby back home and onto the process of seeking a English Citizenship (This tyke will be born with American citizenship and have dual citizenship within a few months of being born!)
• They will get to tour DC and all of the fun things around DC with us in that region! 

Really us moving doesn't change too much except a few small logistical things with legal and medical insurance but today we worked it out via skype and we have a plan and we are just ready to get this egg retrieval done so they can make some beautiful embryos and Kurt can start stabbing me with these HUGE needles.  It really is a positive goal to look forward to!

Kurt will be taking a position that he is very excited about.  He will be teaching Marines that are coming into his MOS (MOS is the term Marines use for what job they do in the Corps).  Basically it is the trade that they do within the Marine Corps.  In this position, Kurt will be the chief instructor and help to tweak the syllabus to make it more pertinent to the future of this MOS.  He already has his bachelors and masters in this field and teaches at an online university so this is totally up his alley.  Not to mention he will have good hours and won't deploy.  This will be a win-win for our family.

But we have to move!  We love our house and how established we are in this neighborhood and within this battalion. I am very active in volunteerism and some of my best friends are also volunteers.  I also host a bunco group monthly and my children are very vested in their lives here. 

But, such is the life of a military wife!  We move, we dig through our linen closet to find curtains to fit the windows in the new house, we figure out how to make 3,200 sq ft of furniture and stuff fit into your new 1,800 sq ft base house.  We figure out how to make 4 walls of shelter into a home, time and time again.  We leave behind best friends and struggle to find new ones in new cities that we don't even like. 

Why would we sign up for this?  Why would we marry a man in uniform?  Why would I put my own dreams on hold to follow him and his dreams around from state to state to state?  Because I love him fiercely.  Because he provides for us a life that I could not provide myself.  Because he is a wonderful father.  Because even though I may not have a career, he agrees to allow me to pursue crazy dreams like surrogacy even though it is not the easiest situation to deal with inside a marriage.  Because even though I may have left a career I loved, he constantly encourages me to become a better person, mother, and wife (Which is why I volunteer and I am close to getting my Bachelors)  And because those dress blues-- what girl wouldn't sign up for that?

Kurt & I at the 2013 Marine Corps Birthday Ball