And the results are in…….

"Lately I been, I been losing sleep

Dreaming about the things that we could be

But baby, I been, I been prayin' hard

Said no more counting dollars

We'll be counting stars

Yeah, we'll be counting stars" - One Republic

The last few weeks have been crazy busy at work and with life in general. As you know from my previous post, we did the implantation on December 10th and have been waiting and praying for good news. During the wait, I kept my mind busy at work with meetings and piles of paperwork and stayed busy at home cleaning house in preparation for family to arrive for Christmas. Time flew for me during this two-week-wait compared to the other ones. Maybe because I am detached from it all and our Surrogate is in another state, I'm not sure, but even though I found myself still thinking about it every day, I did not want to bother her so I only checked in every three days. Each time, she reported no changes, so that could be good news or not good news, so we continued to pray and wait until the official blood test. This time, since it wasn't me we were waiting to see about being pregnant, I had no control, I could not sneak a home pregnancy test, did not compulsively look up early pregnancy symptoms and on the day of the test, while I was anxious to hear, I did not convince myself if was negative and give myself a pity party before ever hearing the results. Yes, this wait time was much easier for me! 

On the day of the blood test, I was at work and needed to finish up a few last minute files before heading out on winter break but could not bring myself to get any of it done. The night before, I had had a dream that our Surrogate called and I missed the phone call so she left a message that we were pregnant and every time I tried to call her back, we missed the connection. So, on that day, I was a wreck, was the dream going to be a reality? Was it a sign? Was it just a dream and nothing more? Were we really pregnant? 

Not too long before lunch that day, I received a phone call……...

The song above has been playing through my head over and over again and seems to fit my current feelings. Many people have been praying hard with us so that we could get our miracle baby. We have had people praying all over Texas, Arizona, the east coast and even in Europe!

I am happy to tell you all that our prayers have been answered and our wonderful surrogate is pregnant!!! 

(I can tell you all now because we have told the grandparents to be and the immediate family already.) We decided to wait to tell Dan's parents for Christmas and it was fun to try and think of a cute way to tell them. We decided to FaceTime them to open gifts together. We had them open their gifts and we opened ours and we talked about random things for over an hour and then we told them we found a couple of gifts that they sent out and forgot to open them. Mom didn't notice that the paper was the same as what was on the gifts we sent them and said she couldn't think of what could be in them but she wanted us to go ahead and open them anyway so she could see. There was a baby rattle in one and baby lotion in the other. Both of them seemed confused at first but then got really excited as they realized what we were driving at! They are thrilled to think they will be first time grandparents in August. I decided to put an ornament on the tree for my mom with a note saying "Coming soon….August 2014" for her to see when she arrived on Christmas Eve. I had to tell her to go look at my tree but when she did, she noticed it right away and asked if it meant what she thought it meant and then said "cool" or something like that. It wasn't very exciting as I had thought but later I found out that she already knew but was trying to act surprised. 

Anyway, so now you know that the initial prayers have been answered, that "beautiful" embryo stuck and he or she is growing fast! She had a second blood test to confirm that things were progressing as they should and the numbers were "huge",  according to the physician's assistant when she read them to me. When you first get a beta HCG pregnancy test, you get a number that tells you it is positive and that number is supposed to double about every 48 hours her numbers were more than doubled! This is great news and could mean that it is: a) a very viable pregnancy (woo hoo!), b) the embryo split and there are two (only a 5% chance of this happening but if it did, wouldn't that just be God's sense of humor shinning through!) or c) apparently there is a correlation between higher numbers on the second beta HCG test and the baby being a girl…… (awe!). Whatever the outcome is, we will be thrilled!

We are so happy that this has worked, happy with a side of caution. We have had the happiness of knowing we were pregnant and before the second trimester, that happiness was ripped away, leaving holes in our hearts forever. I would like to believe that nothing could go wrong as things have so far being moving so smoothly but we all know they can and we will continue to pray for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. This is where you all can continue to help, please keep sending up those prayers! 

We are only 5 weeks along right now but I am already planning what I will be doing as soon as I take that last final exam in the first week of August and planning how much time I will take off of work and trying to decide if I am going to try to breast feed or not. I may be getting way ahead of myself but if you know me, you know that I have never been one to slow down or to be unprepared! I can't wait to put little glow in the dark stars on my child's ceiling and lay down on the floor counting the stars with them……or better yet, go on many fun family camping trips and count real stars!

Until next time, much love and appreciation to all of you for your continued prayers and support! Pray for our Surrogate to have an easy, healthy time during this pregnancy, thanks!