When I was just had Connor I realized that if something happened to him they would need to take me out to a field and shoot me. I loved (and still love) that child with such a fierce emotion that it is difficult to quantify.
I did not want kids.
I do not even like kids.
But I realized that when that child was pulled from my uterus, my heart went with him. I feel him near me, I think about him, even when I don’t.
Having a child really is that cliché of taking your heart and soul out and letting it just walk about outside.
I theorized, that if I could feel that strongly about Connor, how must people feel who had been wanting/begging/pleading for a child for what must seem like forever.
I am no genius, but I can recognize the pain and suffering in others.
I have always wondered, imagine if I could do something small that would change someone else’s life so dramatically, how would that be?
I thought I might offer myself as a surrogate.
I read up a bit, took a few book out of a library (yes, a real library with cards and librarians who go “shooooossshhhhhh” a great deal) and tried to understand the process (surrogacy, not library, I got how that worked.)
I approached a few “fertility nurses” who I was referred to.
I did not get much in the way of response. I was not sure what I wanted to say, but they were not trying to help me – and I just felt awkward, apologized and put the phone down – I felt embarrassed actually.
I googled (back then when it had just taken over from yahoo – you had like 38 hits – oh the innocence). I found a UK and US listed site that gave more information, but there was just nothing South Africa related (this was back in 2002).
I was not sure who to speak to. I felt like I was doing something embarrassing and covert.
I saw an advert in the weekend paper for a couple looking for a surrogate. I sms’d them on the Saturday, there was no reply. A few days after that there was another advert run in the same paper, mentioning that it was illegal to advertise for a surrogate.
Interesting times.
Time passed. I got involved in my stuff, commonly referred to as survival. I promptly forgot about “surrogacy” and had another two kids (I also had a little breakdown and a few bouts of chronic depression, but let’s leave that for another post shall we.)
Recently I found out that surrogacy is a much more accepted custom than back in the day, and so is egg donation. I am too old for egg donation – no one really wants a thirty eight year old’s eggs – no matter how pretty they are. I tried, but I have an official rejection letter on my eggs.
Shame poor eggs, and they try so hard!!
I contacted an agency that deals with surrocacy, and they said “well, no three c-sections are above what we will accept” and bounced me – in their defense they did do it in a very polite fashion.
Ask me why I feel I need to be a surrogate.
Ask me why I need to donate eggs.
Ask me why I feel a need to adopt.
I really do not know. I can’t explain it. I can’t qualify it. I really do not have a martyr complex, or an undying need to find favour with others, it’s not that either. Really can’t explain it to anyone in any sense that will make sense.
I should just say “thank you universe for my three healthy kids, see you later!” and skip off happily into the sunset.
But I feel I can’t.
The one thing I know is, imagine if something small I did makes such a monumental difference to another couple.
I get a few injections, I sit in stirrups for a few hours – but a couple have a chance of having a baby.
I go through a few psychiatrist appointments, more time in stirrups and through a pregnancy – a couple gets a chance to hold their baby, can you imagine what a small sacrifice that is for me, if you compare it against what that couple must have been through to be at that point?
I still hope (against the odds) that Kennith will roll over one morning and say to me: “let’s adopt.”
He knows I know, that he knows he wont. He knows that I know that maybe I hope that maybe he might change his mind.
We all live in a world of fairies and ghosts.
Mine are in the form of little cheruby not-born-yet babies, that aren’t always my babies – but that is the magical place I get to live in.