It has begun!

This blog entry written by Natalie, Intended Mother

The process has officially started! I have waited patiently...or not so patiently for 11 months to begin this process. I have waited and prayed while Tiffany did her Mock cycle and now I finally get to start my part.

We met with our doctor a few weeks ago to go over any questions we may have, fill out our final consent forms, and set us up with a calendar. That to me is so exciting.

The doctor went over our paper work letting us know basically what we were signing. She asked us how we felt about donating our unused embryos, asked us if we wanted to use the remaining sperm for genetic testing etc. She also went over the choices we will have to make when deciding between one embryo or two.

Tonight I injected my first belly shot, Lupron which is also what Tiffany is taking. For my body the drug stabilizes my eggs and makes sure all my eggs are growing at the same rate. For Tiffany (she is also taking Lupron injections) it puts her ovaries to sleep.

So this whole injection thing, not as easy as I thought. I had all this nerve built up for weeks thinking how easy it would be.  I was all ready to do it myself, I grabbed the part of my skin to shoot it into and although the needle is a tiny insulin syringe, actually taking the needle and injecting yourself it quite frightening..... I definitely chickened out.

One more reason to be thankful for my amazing husband. He is absolutely deathly afraid of needles. When we went to the doctors office for the "Injection Training" all he did was look at the needles and he was feeling faint. But he stepped up to the plate and did amazing. I on the other hand was screaming with a pillow over my face talking to my dad on the phone trying to distract myself. All in all, it was NOTHING! I barley felt it and to say it was a prick would be an exaggeration.

I have waited so long for this process to start, it was a long scary trying time for James and I. They say that infertility is one of the most difficult things on a marriage. Thankfully James and I have stuck together and really leaned on each other when times got really tough.

We are finally at this point and getting our bodies ready for all of this I cannot help but get so nervous. I am naturally such a worrier and feeling like I cannot control the outcome of this situation is such a scary thing. All we can do at this point is pray for what God has planned for us. Pray that he will bring us this blessing/s through with the help of my sister in law. Remembering that has given us much peace.

Thank you for reading, and all of your support.  Tiffany and I love the e-mails, comments, and FB messages that have been sent.   Your stories warm our hearts and your words or support help us stay strong.  We have started some filming for the documentary, we are going to film a trailer for Kickstarter.com where we hope to receive most of our funding to film our story.  Stay tuned for how you can help in the next few weeks!  Sharing our story by re-tweeting, facebooking and emailing helps us the most.

Thank you.

Natalie