And so it begins....

There we are. Me and Jessi. On her boat, the "Sloppy Toona".  Beautiful day isn't it (Photos courtesy of Rosemary Wright, futurely known as Rosemary Ingvoldstad and if you say is with a rich German accent it just feels right)?  That's the day we first talked about me becoming a Gestational Surrogate for her and her partner, Ben Jacobs. It all started when she was telling us about her true love for Ben and how they were going to move in together and how even though she never wanted to have children before, but now, because of her true love, she does.

Cue Rosey (see details above): "Jessi, can you have babies?" We love her because of/despite her directness. Jessi has a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) which in layman’s terms is a hole in her heart.  When she was born, doctors expected that the hole would close on its own with time and there was no need for surgery to repair it.  But the hole never closed and as a result, she developed Eisenmenger’s Syndrome - read 30% - 60% maternal mortality rate.

  

Jessi had thought about this and she and Ben had discussed the possibility of not being able to have children. What they had decided was that Jessi would meet with the High Risk Pregnancy Team at Fletcher Allen Health Care and they would help determine what the risks of Jessi carrying and giving birth to a baby would be.  Cue Rosey, "But what if you can't have a baby??" (Thank Goddess she asks so we don't have too!). And Girl Scout Jessi replies, "Then we'll have  a surrogate." Jessi expressed that she would love to have had either of her sisters-pause-Jessi and I both are lucky enough to have two sisters. Jessi is the oldest of three, Dr. April in the middle and the baby, Amber, who is actually a grown-up. I am in the middle. OLDER sister Sarah and the baby, Rebecca, who is also actually a grow-up.-Un-pause. Unfortunately neither of those sisters have had children and doctor's don't like to see surrogate's who have not previously had "live births" (the language in this blog is largely what the medical community uses when discussing surrogacies and what not. It's not meant to be insensitive, but it just is sometimes). Jessi went on to say that she would love to have someone she knew, but she didn't have anyone else to do it. 

"I'll do it." Maggie blurts out. Silence. "I'm really good at having babies. And I should probably talk to Jim, but I'll do it."

We went on to discuss possible details, timelines (I didn't want to start until after the following summer) and what not and then resumed our fun on the open water of Lake Champlain.

Unfortunately we have no pictures of our photographer, Rosey, but she was there. We couldn't have done it without her.

That additional person is Erin Armstrong. Also a friend from high school. Erin, Rosey, Jessi and Maggie all continue to live in Vermont and try and maintain a at least bi-monthly outing together.