Here's to Making a Baby During COVID-19!

Welp, it's taken almost two months since my last blog post...But I was awaiting good news.  And I've got some...Along with some bad news, I suppose.  It wouldn't be a surrogacy adventure without bad news.  Lets get straight into it.

(All of the images in this blog post show the steps we've completed and the next steps in our journey.)

Obviously, the world is dealing with COVID-19 right now.  The most recent episode of "Joe Grows a Family" back in March was how everything in our surrogacy process was put on pause and we had to wait indefinitely until this virus was vanquished and/or we "flattened the curve."  During the month of April, fertility clinics around the country began to attempt to re-open, including ours.  They were not taking on new cases and still aren't but they're continuing to work with previous cases and trying their best to reschedule and reconfigure things and maintain cycles. They informed us of their procedures during these strange and trying times.  For example, there's only a few patients allowed in the building at a time, patients must sit six feet apart in the waiting room, face masks must be worn, and thorough cleaning and sanitary practices are utilized, etc.  You know the drill by now.  Anyways, they were excited to keep our cycle advancing...And they informed me that my surrogate was also "champing at the bit" to take the next step.  Like us, I'm sure this period of limbo has been challenging for her and her family.  She had taken many of the necessary steps for fertilization and had gone through many appointments and shots and medications and everything...Just to sit and twiddle her thumbs along with Adan and I. 

Because the only issue we had essentially was that our egg donor is from California.  If we had chosen a local egg donor, we could've continued the process in April and got that big, beautiful egg nested into our surrogate.  Easy Peezy.  But we chose an out-of-state egg donor.  Grr!  If you remember, we could not find a Hispanic/Latina egg donor in Wisconsin...The only viable one we liked was in The Golden State.  California and Wisconsin have "shelter-in-place"mandates currently so our egg donor is unable to travel.  In addition, it's a precarious time to travel.  We don't want our egg donor getting the Coronavirus, of course! 

Anyways, the past month we've been dealing with emails, phone calls, and video chats with people at The Surrogacy Center and Wisconsin Fertility Institute in Madison and our lawyer at Grady, Hayes, and Neary, LLC in Waukesha and Egg Donation, Inc. in California.  We discussed the possibility of switching our egg donor to a local one and what that would entail medically and legally.  I mean, we would've had to start all over with a fresh egg donor, one we'd have to research and find again, after months of tests and treatments and contracts.  Though there were some complex discussions while in quarantine nothing much occurred, no decisions really made.  A Mexican egg donor who was living in Madison was available...We had evaluated her profile when we were first searching for egg donors and we'd passed her over.  Although somewhat promising she just wasn't checking off all the boxes for us and we didn't feel the spark.

However, we had an itchy trigger finger and we almost made the significant decision to switch our egg donor to this one in Madison...Even though many of my friends encouraged us to wait and be patient -- choosing an egg donor we didn't totally adore over one we loved just because we had to wait a month or two seemed a little silly.  Well, today the representative from the Egg Donation joint said that our egg donor is also eager to resume the cycle.  She also thinks we've been on hiatus for too long.  She stated that she is comfortable traveling and is not frightened to be flown out to Wisconsin to continue the process.  This was awesome news and even our fertility clinic was overjoyed.  I mean, technically, this doesn't mean much because we still need to wait until California and Wisconsin lift their "Safer at Home" regulations.  They're supposed to be lifted by the end of May.  Who knows if that will happen...But it seems like much of the medical community thinks that it will.  I've heard hospitals are starting to continue on with normal procedures, appointments, and surgical treatments.  We all know that COVID-19 though has been wicked and unforgiving and unpredictable.  So we shall see what happens.  But our "surrogacy team" seems confident that our journey is enduring.

So...I guess that's it.  Next step?  Well, continuing to wait.  LoL.  I started this blog with "we're waiting" and I'll end with it too.  But our fertility clinic is discussing logistics with Egg Donation, Inc., getting our egg donor to receive Coronavirus testing so that treatment and the cycle can progress.  Once traveling restrictions are lifted, Adan and I will have a Treatment Plan Visit (over the phone) with our doctor...And our surrogacy journey will live to see another day!  It's ostensibly good news.  For now.  I'm going to hold onto this feeling.  Praying and hoping that this virus doesn't hinder us even more.  See?  Aren't you glad I waited until I had good news?

Like a trusty steed, I'll keep you all posted :-)

-JOE