Go Team!!!!!

There is a website where surrogates of all types and intended parents go to compare notes, ask questions and support each other. Today a GC asked if others consider their IPs to be their employers. Some of the answers were shocking to me. It never occurred to me that people could consider this an employer/employee relationship. It made me think. Who is my GN to me?

My Love and I consider ourselves to be a team. I consider GN to be a member of that team. I love me some internet research. So does GN. Nothing makes me happier than when she sends me an email full of statistics she has pulled up online. We had to decide how many embryos to transfer. My Love and I were on the fence. I emailed GN and offered to let her make the call. She's a stay at home mom with a family to take care of. A twin pregnancy would have a real impact on her family. When she wrote back it was an email full of numbers. She had spent her precious spare time trying to make the best decision possible for herself, her family, our baby(ies) and us. She WORKS at this. She is actively involved in the decision making process. She is a participant. I couldn't be happier. She wants this baby for us as much as we want it. When she talks about achieving pregnancy she doesn't say that she will be pregnant. She says WE will be pregnant-GN, me and My Love all one big happy pregnant team.

Humor me for a minute and let me talk about how much I love this woman. I was going to butcher poor EBB's poem to suit my love for GN, but when I read it I realized that it perfectly describes the love I feel for this women.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Some of you may think I'm insane or at the very least a little creepy. Think of it though. This woman was a stranger to us a few short months ago. On Wednesday she is leaving her family flying halfway across the country to let us put our embryo inside of her. She has offered make this trip three times if the first transfer doesn't work. God-willing she will spend the next 38 weeks carrying our child for us. Then she will go through the hell that is labor, hand us our baby and go home. Yes, she is being paid. I would never use the word compensated. There is no amount of money in this world that could repay her for the gift she is giving us. I would happily give her a kidney, a chunk of my liver, whatever she wanted. How can I ever love her enough? Creepy? I don't think so. I think the love is feel is totally appropriate.

This is where the miracle that is GN comes into play. She doesn't want anything from us. She THANKS us for letting her be a part of this process. She is excited to do this for us. She thinks this is a good lesson to teach her daughters about giving. She wants us to love our child. She has faith that we will raise this child to be a good person. She is a miracle. That's who she is to me.