I'm Jessica, I don't consider myself to be extraordinary. I'm not a super mom and I don't participate in a lot of of mom activities. I'm just your run of the mill average mom and wife. Keeping up with the bills, elbow deep in laundry and dishes, attempting to ready my 4 year old for kindergarten, potty training my 2 year old monster brat girl.
I notice a lot in other blogs I follow that the authors refer to their family members by code names or shorten them by their first initial when they write about them. I will not be doing this. The way I see it, most of you reading this already know me in some way or form. You know that I'm married to David, and we have two children, Bradley who is 4 years old and Abigail who is 2 years old.
David and I will have been in our relationship for 7 years this coming March, and married for 4 just a week after. Our marriage is just like any other. We have our ups and downs. We argue, we make up, we make important decisions together regarding our children, finances and the like. Most of all we support each other in all that we do. I think that is why we work so well together. I do have to say I have been blessed when God provided our path to each other. I often find it hard to believe that I've fallen in love with someone who values my ideas and loves me for who I am, not for who he wishes I would be. I only hope that I am for him, all that he is for me.
"Princess and a Bug" comes from our two children. Abigail, our baby girl, is our Princess. She's well aware of it, little brat. She's loves being pampered by having her nails painted, her hair fixed, and sometimes raiding my makeup box. She also very much loves getting dirty. This I could do without, but what can you do?! Bradley, our oldest, is our LoveBug. That has been his nickname since the moment we welcomed him into our lives. He's showed and taught me a whole new reason for living, for loving, and for enjoying all the little things. It's amazing how someone so innocent and small can teach you so much about the world and how we should be living. Having two toddlers under 5 definitely makes for entertaining and sometimes stressful days. Sometimes I'm ready to pull my hair out, but when the day is over and everything is quiet, I know how truly blessed I am for my beautiful little family.
On to the Photography! I've always had an interest in photography, but never had the chance to turn that interest into a reality until 2008 when a mother I met through an online forum (Myspace) gave me the opportunity of a life time! She was upgrading her amazing camera for one that was even more amazing, and gave me a great deal on my first purchase of a DSLR camera. At first, I was very overwhelmed by all of it's features, but I took the advice of all the camera lugging mommies around me and learned how to use the camera for all it's worth. It took a lot of time, a lot of reading, a lot of playing around, but I started to get the hang of it. I became the mom at the park with the big fat camera and got lots of silly looks. A camera upgrade later (because of an unfortunate home burglary, still scares me!), I'm still clicking away and have turned my love of photography into a business. With all the thanks to my wonderful supporting husband, David, the many who have taught me along the way, and so many of my family and friends supporting me through it all. I love you all and can never say enough thanks for all that you do!
If you're interested in my photography, would like to see my portfolio or website, you can visit any of the following:
Some of you know, some of you don't, either way if you're reading this blog, you're going to be updated about my upcoming journey into surrogacy. A long time ago when I was a teenager, before I knew David or even had thoughts about becoming a mother myself, I dreamed of being a surrogate mother. I never thought it would be something that I would really have to opportunity to be a part of. David and I discussed it early on in our relationship, but didn't talk much about it. After we were married and our first was born (he was born first by the way, don't get confused! He was born in 2006 and we postponed our wedding until a year after he was born.) we spoke of it again, never really putting much into it. Our daughter was born in 2008 and we decided with 100% knowing that we were done having children. Lets face it. Kids are expensive and a lot of work! It takes a lot out of you to raise and mold a child into a human being that will be a part of the community in the future years. You can only hope and pray that you've done your best with what your parents have taught you and what mother nature embeds into your heart and mind.
So anyway! Near the beginning of this year I started to more thought into it. Looked into a few agencies, talked with other intended parents (who will be referred to as IP's) and surrogate mothers (SM's) about their experiences, several lawyers, doctors, the whole nine yards. We decided that we would rather have a more personal relationship with our IP's. We want to have the chance to get to know who we are carrying for, what kind of people they are, and to share the joy of parenthood with them. As great as agencies can be, I'm glad we've chosen to go the route of independent surrogacy. I'll still be dealing with a lawyer and all that jazz, but this way I get to build a bond with the IP's.
While doing my research on the subject, I found a surrogacy forum. I went there for support of others who are taking the same route and to get advice when I need it. I wasn't really looking for that special couple to work with. We were bombarded with emails from couples and individuals who are looking for their perfect surrogate. I had to turn down quite a few for one reason or another. I'm going to leave the names of our IP's out of my blog for their privacy, so thank you in advance for respecting that! I will however give them the dreaded blog code names! From here on out, they will go by *C (mommy to be) and *G (daddy to be). *C introduced herself to me on the forum and right away I could feel something with her. We talked more exchanging our hopes and dreams that we want to come from this, besides the obvious. The more we talked, the more I fell in love. We've been talking for a few months now. Mostly *C and I talk over the phone or through emails, once in a while when he's not working, I get the chance to talk with *G. He and David have had the chance to chit chat a bit, and I sat on my hands the entire time. How nerve wracking that was!
Surrogacy takes a lot of paper work and a lot of testing to get started. *C and *G are coming here to visit us and our families in December, I can't freaking wait! From there we will be talking with specialized doctors, scoping out exactly how we want this to go, etc. We hope that all the paper work and contract signing is finished up by the end of the year so we can get started early next year. If all goes right, *C and *G will be brand new parents by this time next year! I'll be asking for lots of prayers for a healthy pregnancy and delivery, safe travels all around, and an overall amazing experience. I couldn't be more happy and excited that I'm finally going through with one of my biggest dreams. I'm so glad that I have an amazing husband, family and friends supporting me through it all! I love you all so much for all of your encouraging words!
So there it is. My very first blog and it's a million miles long. I'm sorry if it ran on forever! Hopefully I since that pretty much sums up what I'll be writing about on here, I can keep it a organized!
Thanks for reading!
Jessica C.
1 comments:
I love your blogs :)
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