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Happy Birthday, little one(I just had this who post typed out, and then lost it. I don't know if I have the time or patience to type it out as well again, but I'll do my best.) Almost 11 years ago, I was an anonymous egg donor. I saw an ad. I was young and fertile. I liked the idea of helping a family have a baby. And they were paying me $2500. -- At the time--fall of 1998--I had a 2 year old, a 6 month old, and we were almost 3 years out from Abigail's death. The process to become a donor was much more involved than I had anticipated. Full physical, reams of paperwork, psycological screenings. The hospital even had Steve come up for one of my appointments, just to be sure that we were on the same page. I had to go on the Pill, so that the hospital could regulate my cycle. - After all of that had been done, a family chose me to be their egg donor. I started administering hormone shots to myself every day. (Steve says I was very hormonal, but I don't remember it!) After months of preparation, the mom was ready to accept the eggs. I had to have a huge shot in my backside (my mom's friend, who is a nurse, gave this to me--there was no was I could have handled it, and Steve wasn't volunteering!), and the egg retrieval was scheduled. - January 20, 1999 I don't remember the retrieval, since they knocked me out, but I remember waking up and being very upset. Apparently, two families had chosen me (I probably knew this ahead of time, but I don't remember anything about the 2nd family), and the doctor was hoping to get enough eggs for both families. Well, they could only reach one of my ovaries, so only the first family got my eggs. I remember crying so hard--I was so sad for that 2nd family. - I was told that I could call in a few weeks, and they would let me know if the mom had gotten pregnant. And I could call after her due date, and they would let me know if the baby had been born, the gender, weight, height, but (obviously) nothing else. - Now for those of you thinking that I spent the next 9 months wondering about this baby, guess again. By June of 1999, I had Eli, who was 2.5 and toilet training, Maddie who was 15 months and just had started walking, and guess what? I was pregnant! AUGHHHH. Totally unplanned. But you know the rest of the story--Patience Elizabeth joined our family on 1/25/00, one year and 5 days after I donated eggs. So life was full and busy. - Summer turned to fall, and I did call to find out if the family had had their baby. Almost 4 years after we had lost our daughter, another family had added a daughter. She was born on 10/19/99, weighing 9 lbs. 7 oz. She is 10 years old today. -- Why would I do this? How was I so sure that this was the right thing to do? Well, I certainly loved the idea of helping another family & we did need the money. But the incident that sealed the deal was a conversation that Steve and I had with the program psycologist. We were telling her how much we missed Abigail, and how much we loved the idea of helping another family. How we knew the ache of wanting a child, and the thought of easing that ache for another family was fantastic. She said, "I don't usually tell the donor much about the egg recipient, but this mom is in her 40's and already has another daughter, who was also born using a donor egg. Her daughter's name is Abigail." - It may sound like just a coincidence to you, but for me, it was like God said, "See, this is the right thing to do. You are helping to give their Abigail a little brother or sister." Maybe someday I'll meet her. After talking it over with Steve, we put in the paperwork that if this girl wants to meet me once she's a teenager, they can contact me. If you're wondering, I don't consider her my daughter. I view egg donation along the same lines at adoption. She belongs to her family, and I don't have or desire to have any claim to her. I'm just thrilled that this anonymous couple was able to add to their family after struggling with infertility. - Happy Birthday, little one! 9:55 AM - Oct. 19, 2009 - post comment
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Description Hi! I'm Amanda, mom to 3 gorgeous kids & wife to Steve. When I'm not homeschooling the kids or cleaning the house, I keep busy with my Pampered Chef business. I'm also learning to sew. I love reading and cross-stitching. We have a great life, here in the littlest state in the Union! Home User Profile Archives Recent Entries - CVS savings--Thanksgiving style! - Happy Thanksgiving or, what recipes did Amanda make that bombed? :) - Halloween - TGIF! - Trying to get back into the CVS game |
We had a young family, and that check was going to help a lot!