8 month celebrations with a small herd of bunnies and a gosling?

I am missing my blogland buddies but thinking of you often. With surrogacy becoming more and more topical it is hard not to! For those tentatively stepping onto the rocky highway for the first time we really hope it treats you well - despite the latest hurdles. If proof is needed that hurdles can be cleared then here she is!
  



My friends and I wish you all the very best! Telia xx

I'm 8 months old today and look how I get to celebrate!! Woohooo!!!

Sitting for prolonged periods is still proving a little hit 'n miss!

 

Telia and TB

Well HELLO! I've finally found my way back to Blogland!! Hurrah!! It's been SO long I've all but forgotten how to post! Our darling baby Telia is 3 & 1/2 months old now and - as we speak - talking incessently to the monkey and elephant hanging from the Jungle Gym. Not too sure if she's telling them off or inviting them to a tea party but whatever it is its VERY important and needs to be said with much flailing of arm and leg  ... and considerable volume.   

I really just wanted to post today to pass on a rather important observation that was not pointed out to me that will hopefully save future IP's some unneccessary concerns. And apologies to those who knew this already . . . But you see 'our' babies were given a BCG (Tuberculosis - TB) injection at birth (or day 1) in India. These vaccinations are not a part of our routine Australian immunisation schedules any more and so GP's etc may not be on the 'look out' for resulting site reactions etc.

However after a few days (or in my case - weeks - once we got home to Oz) - the area (that I now know as the injection site) started to react and look quite angry, red, swollen and borderline scary. It looked like this for months and my GP and various nurses thought it might be a bite of some description - but I didn't think so becasue it was there for so long!!

Now it has calmed right back down and just looks like a small - calm - insignificant - slightly raised lump on the uppermost part of her left arm. My friend (and local immunisation nurse) suggested to me that it could have been a TB (BCG) reaction if she'd had one of those? - which of course she had - and BINGO - it all (finally) made perfect sense!! Hurrah again!!!
 

After BCG vaccination, a small lump will form

at the site of the vaccination as early as two (2) days

and an ulcer may appear which may last up to two

to three months.

• The vaccination site should be kept clean and

dry.

• Clean, warm water only should be used to clean

the site when necessary.

• Antiseptics, creams or lotions should not be used

and the site should not be covered with sticking

plaster or similar dressings.

• If a dressing is considered necessary, this should

be a dry dressing, with a strip of sticking plaster

along two sides, allowing air to circulate.

 

 

So now that I've got that Community Announcement out there it's time for some photos!

 

As we speak! She loves her Jungle Gym and all her Jungle Mates.

Bubble/Saliva production has gone into overdrive in the last 1 - 2 weeks ........ teeth coming????

 

One of the lovely photos we had taken at 8 weeks XX

 

Back tracking now but this is Telia's dad meeting her for the very first time at the airport!

25th August 2012

 

Sorry about the sideways aspect but here we are on a standard (Australian) pillow case at 5 weeks!

 

And here we are now at 14 weeks!

 

And finally here she is enjoying her first Melbourne Cup!! Ha Ha

 



 With much love to you all!!

Jacaranda and Co

XX 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



We are HOME and we have PHOTOS!

(Thursday 6 September) Oh My Goodness! SO MUCH has happened since my last blog!! How could I possibly bring you up to date NOW? Too much time has elapsed, and that saddens me, I've got just SO MUCH to tell you! But I guess, in a nutshell - WE ARE HOME!

So thanks largely I believe, to Poonam Jain, Telia and I managed to catch our original flights home on August 24th!! Holy Toledo Batman!! This meant ..... that even tho I was 'husbandless' and more specifically 'genetic donor-less' ..... We still managed to exit india exactly 24 days after Telia was born!! Yes - It FELT longer (at times) - But 24 days is simply AMAZING!!

And speaking of AMAZING ..... it's SOOOOOOOOO AMAZING TO BE HOME!!!

Here I am waiting anxiously, nervously, EXCITEDLY for the delivery of my precious little baby at Eden Hospital on July 31st 2012.

"CONGRATULATIONS! You have a daughter!" Welcome to the world darling Telia Kate XX OO

A Cuddle - Eleven years in the making.

At 'Home' in Kalkaji. Getting to to know each other. Telia now aged 3 days.

Working the Camera for Passport Photos. Aged 4 days.

Skyping with Dad! I LOVE YOU DAD!! We BOTH wish you were here!!!! Aged 7 days.

Bath time in Kalkaji. Despite evidence to the contrary - Telia LOVES bath time!
Aged One week & 1 day.

The day we went to the park - and got caught in a Monsoonal down pour! Crap!
Aged One Week & 4 days.

Half Smiling - Half Grimacing my way through another Power Outage.
Telia aged Two Weeks & 6 days.

The one and only time that my guard came down - and tears were shed - meeting our beautiful, delicate Surrogate. We are forever grateful dearest surrogate and we promise to love and take care of Telia Kate for life! Telia aged Three Weeks & 1 day.

So many photos to choose from! Approximately 100 per week actually!! So more to come when time permits - but hopefully this gives a quick little update on our time in India!!

Stay tuned for the next epidode - perhaps Home Time photos?

Wishing everyone much love and support on their individual journeys and to those who have emailed me recently - I am SO VERY sorry that you have not yet received a reply! I am incredibly behind schedule atm!! Please forgive me - you will be hearing from me soon!!

Uh oh - Feed time.

Jacaranda XX












 

TELIA : Week THREE

(Tuesday 21st August) It's a double birthday celebration today! Three Weeks for Telia and 42 years for DADDY!!! Happy birthday DADDY!!! We can't wait to see you again soon!!

So today also marks Day: 27 for me and I have no intention what so ever of contesting Bernadette's title so am REALLY hoping to be on a plane again before lets say - Day 31!! But certainly no guarantees there as many IP's before me will attest to - so all I can do now is put on my most patient disposition and trust the system.  Zzeeeennnn......

It is absolutely pouring with rain today - and ironically of course it is as dry as a chip at home and in need of MUCH rain!! (farming country) SoTelia and I made up a short video clip this morning and posted it onto our special little face book site trying to send this rain to daddy as his birthday present. We are still awaiting confirmation of its receipt - and may be waiting ...... Some ...... Time!

There are a few new IP's arriving this week (that I know of) and so I (we) wish them all the VERY BEST for their big adventures coming up in New Delhi!!! Your precious little children will make any future frustrations so much easier to navigate and one little gassy smile from them will melt your heart instantly!

I would be happy to provide whatever "first hand experience" I can offer to anyone apprehensively approaching India for the first time - as an IP in the same situation -  and although my experiences are very basic (ie 27 days) I may just be able to put your mind at rest about any niggling concerns? Just drop me an email.

As for Telia - she has come up with a few pointers of her own!
1. Getting your nappy changed is the ABSOLUTE PITS and should be outlawed!!
2. When I wake for my bottle - always assume I was already STARVING 5 MINUTES AGO!!!
3. If you want to save on washing NEVER leave me without a nappy for longer than .003 seconds!!  4. There is no difference between S26 Formula and Nan Pro 1 Formula! They are both delicious!!
5. If you cry like a Banshee at night time there's a fair chance you will end up being dragged across town to see a Doctor in the day time - so only do this if you REALLY want an outing!! Trust me there are more fun outings to be had if you can just  zip it between the hours of say 10pm and 6am! Nappy changes and Feeds are permissible between these hours but I would suggest snuggling down and sleeping ASAP afterwards!
6. Mum tells me I want to go home. APPARENTLY there's more to life than just this apartment and having mum at my beck and call 24hrs a day!? Honestly I can't see it but if mum says so then I guess it must be true??

Lots of Love from Jacaranda and Telia xx

PS: Oh and for those wondering - a Jacaranda is a Tree! And not just any tree but my favourite tree because in the lead up to Christmas in southern Australia all of the Jacaranda trees go into the most spectacular PURPLE bloom and up against the gorgeous-ness of their green leaves look simply STUNNING and make you feel happy inside :)

PPS: There have been no more trips across town to see a Dr since our first trip just over a week ago. Touch wood we're going to make it home now before a second one is required!!

TELIA: Week Two Day 3

8pm (Friday) Ok So I am tapping this out with the iPad balanced on my lap and Telia hugged close to my chest hiccuping away like a small engine. She doesn't like evenings at all and more specifically she doesn't like the hours between 8pm and 1am! Yes that's a lot of hours to be a bit grumpy - but that's my girl! XX And then some nights - she's not grumpy at all! But there have been two when I've been that close to (somehow) finding our way to a hospital - that it's only been because I'm not too sure how to actually do that in the middle of the night - that I haven't gone! I need to check one day to see if Rahuls taxis run 24hrs . . .I guess they do but I didn't want to wake him in case they didn't!

But last Monday (lunchtime) we did go to see a very lovely Paediatrition who checked her out from head to toe and reassured me that we're right on track. Bit of a sore bum and (maybe) a bit of reflux but otherwise - we're ok. We came home with a new bottle of "colic aid" (which, according to Telia tastes like poison) some saline drops for her nose if needed (not needed yet) instructions to sleep her at 30degrees, to feed her in more of a 'bolt upright' position with heaps of intermittent burping and a real airing of her bot bot with every nappy change. Oh and to start using the Sudocream from home! She is feeding quite well (except we lose a "BIT" down the front sometimes) and she's taken to the new formula as if there hasn't been a change! Phew! That was starting to worry me - leading up to the change! The reason wasn't medical - it was simply because I ran out of the one tin of S26 brought from Australia (you guessed it the other two tins WERE coming with daddy) and apparently you can't buy S26 in New Delhi? No bother! It seems Nan Pro 1 tastes JUST as delicious!! YAY!!!

The visa nightmare has reached the 'climax' many of you probably saw coming and we've given up on them ever processing it so have asked for the passport (at least) to be returned ASAP. Photocopies of said passport are now needed for other reasons here in Delhi so its no help to us stuck in somebody's In-Tray in Sydney!!!  The visa application was first lodged June 29 and so you can do the Maths to see how long NOTHING has taken to happen. Daddys not coming to India. So very disappointed but moving on!  I have now been in New Delhi for 23 days.

Telia's application for Australian citizenship was lodged today following the excellent news last week that there was more than a 99.98% chance that my husband is her father! Oh Yay! Oh Yay! Oh Yay!!!  So I am not entirely sure what happens next. I guess I wait for the application to be approved and then apply for her passport? Anyway Poonam Jain has it all in hand and I  recommend her services to anyone coming to New Delhi to pick up their beautiful adorable gorgeous magical bundles of bliss!! 

I am so sorry that I am not able to post any photos -  whilst in India - an unexpected downside to the iPad I'm afraid - but trust me the kid looks TOTALLY gorgeous and my Green Leaf accommodation is just fine!! I would certainly love to catch up with any (currently visiting) IP's or soon to arrive IP's! It's been so wonderful catching up with several already and our friendships will last forever I'm sure! For starters we all had July babies so that's a pretty good common ground hey? 

Wishing everyone on this amazing journey the very best of luck with their next hurdles and I hope you clear them with ease and that you follow us to Delhi very, very soon!! 

Telia and Mum XX OO 

TELIA Day 9 + Bernadette

Stalking the Stalk has summed up beautifully just how many of us feel about the irrepressible, inspirational Bernadette! If you are able to contribute at all to this amazing fund raising effort please  do so and THANK YOU so much on behalf of all the IPs currently in India attempting the 'high wire' sport of surrogacy and motherhood in a wonderful but foreign land.

Telia my precious little girl has taken pity on her temporarily single mother and conceded some ground on the feeding, drinking, sleeping fronts. We had a few nights of heated discussion about it - Telia more heated than me - I was too tired to exert that much energy - but in the end she made a couple of excellent choices:

*to drink her bottles at room temperature (cutting out all that wasted bottle warming time)

*to drink all 60 mls in one sitting (and not 10mls here, 20mls there, sucking like a dummy blah blah)

* to settle better between the 10pm-ish feed and the 2am-ish feed YIPPPEEEE

These three simple adjustments have made a world of difference and I thank her immensely for that!

We celebrated her One Week birthday with a trip to the Svelte and play dates with the "Saskia - From little things, Big things grow" family and the "Our journey so Far" family! It was REALLY lovely and I had a great time - I'm pretty sure Telia did too coz she barely let out a squwark the entire time! Good Girl! Thanks again for such wonderful company guys and looking forward to more of the same in the future! Except my treat this time!!!

We also got to experience the 'Famous' City Walk Mall and I was simply blown away! The shopping options around Kalkaji are very ummmmm rustic and charming and the M Block Market is bustling and intense whereas the Mall . . . Is just like a big MALL ha ha! It was like an upscale "Westfield" shopping centre! ... And amongst other things I was finally able to buy myself a notebook!! . . Or four! . . As well as some tins of tuna! Some stuffed olives! Some Pringles! Some Nescafé coffee and some cracker biscuits! Ha ha yep - I went nuts and bought crazy stuff! But seriously you can get pretty much everything you need from that Mall from Saris to Sandshoes! :)

We've spent the last couple of days chilling out at home and waiting, waiting, waiting for whatever the next move might be. My husband has all but given up hope of ever getting here now and has returned to the oil and gas rigs in the desert. It seemed ridiculous wasting all of his hard earned holiday leave sitting around at home being lead up the garden path day in day out by all involved in the visa process.

So Telia and I are going to attempt this exit gig on our own it seems. Wish us luck! And talk again soon! XX

TELIA Day Six

Can't believe how much Internet access I've had since the Biggest Power Outage in the history of the Universe so maybe it did have one good outcome?
Telia has settled in to Delhi life with relative ease and yesterday got to see quite a lot of it due to her many appointments! Still no visa for daddy so we won't even talk about that - but I was able to hire a lovely private nurse for the day for roughly $20 and I simply couldn't have managed without her! First stop was Eden Hospital for her Jaundice review where she had a small amount of blood taken from her left hand. 1500 inr cash for this so it pays to keep a certain amount of money on hand at all times because Visa just doesn't cut it sometimes. Luckily the Passport Photographer the night before didn't empty my savings (in fact he was VERY reasonable, took GREAT passport photos, gave me a lovely 'mummy and baby' freebie photo and came to my apartment so all in all HE WAS GREAT!). She weighed in slightly under birth weight but that is perfectly normal so I'm not worried.
Then we all bundled back in to the car and headed across to SCI to settle our accounts etc. Then straight across to MBlock briefly to exchange the last of my Aussie Dollards at the Money Exchange. Now THAT was an interesting experience and I was pleasantly surprised with the end result because to my untrained eye it appeared to be total chaos! Was also acutely aware that my driver, nurse AND BABY had driven off to wait for me so was REALLY hoping to see them all again when I emerged! Yes! Thankfully I did!
Then ACROSS town to see Dr Law and have Telias DNA test. For us this meant another 'stab' for Telia (heel this time) because that's the type of sample needed by DNA Labs in Sydney. Sorry Telia!! But she was a little trouper and didn't bawl for long. That's my girl :)
Ok everyone BACK IN THE CAR and back across to MBlock for some quick-sticks shopping while I had some help! Needed to stock up on more nappies, more wipes, a couple more Avent bottles, some wash flannels, some baby oil and bath 'soap', a Snuggle thingy, some tiny bibs and of course I couldn't resist a little outfit or two.  Then just enough energy left to buy a small take-away coffee and bowl of noodles for back home. By this stage I was feeling pretty worn and Telia was looking decidedly wilted so I steered us all back home to the air conditioning and some decent feeds!! Well for me and Telia anyway - I couldn't seem to offer the nurse ANYTHING except a glass of water! I mean I offered everything/anything to her but she just wouldn't take me up on it! How BAD did that make me feel?!
At 5 and then 5.45 as instructed I phoned the hospital back for the Jaundice results and they were fine so yay. One thing off my mind. Across at the DNA appt there was an awkward moment when it seemed they may not be able to take the sample because the 'donor' wasn't present (no - don't get me started) but following a reassuring phone call to Poonam and a short discussion - a plan of attack was formulated and implemented so fingers, toes and eyes crossed it all works out just fine!!
So today is a QUIET day in front of the Olympics. Only set two challenges for the day today (1) WASH my hair!! And (2) give Telia her first ever tub bath! I'm sure she probably had one in hospital but since she's been home with me (today day 3) we've just been topping and tailing until we work ourselves out. Bath procedure pulled off without any dramatics so I am happy to report it will probably be repeated on a regular basis :)
Oh - another thing we did today was arrange for Telias dad to read her, her very first story book- via Skype! It was called "Spot goes to the Farm" and she loved it!! Hee Hee
(Ps Sorry for all iPad related spelling/grammar inconsistencies - finger tapping your posts is an acquired skill believe me!!!)  xx

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr and Mrs Jacaranda are very super overwhelmingly happy to finally announce the very safe arrival of Miss Telia Kate on Born on July 31st at 10.55am Delhi time!!
This has been the first time I have been able to re- access Blogland since my last Blog on Delhi Day 5 so apologies for the apparent delay.
Miss Telia was born via csection at the Eden Hospital and by all accounts hasn't been causing anyone too much grief in the nursery. She weighed in at 3.12kg and by my calculations held on for 38 weeks. Good Girl! At that weight she has claimed heavy weight champion of the NICU and hasn't been hooked up to any monitors or under any lighting as far as I can tell.
She has squwarked once in my presence and that was to say PICK ME UP MUM so I did and she stopped. Good Girl!
Today in "TELIA Day 3" so I am fully expecting to bring her home with me! I will find out for sure when I get to the hospital. She will either have her bags packed and waiting, or she won't!
I would also just like to use Blogland to personally thank my 'new friend' SASKIA for coming to the hospital with me the day Telia was born - in lieu of her daddy who is still frustrated beyond belief with the apparent lack of intelligence at the visa place in Australia! You got it! Still not here! Still no sign of a visa and still not able to get a straight answer from anyone! An it's a TEST I tell you!
BUT WE HAVE TELIA AND THE WORLD IS WONDERFUL DESPITE THESE HURDLES!!
(please don't listen to any advice to travel on a Medical visa!).
And now before I close for the day I would also like to express my eternal gratitude to Dr Shivani and her team working from SCI in New Delhi and to the beautiful nurses at Eden Hospital!
Access to Blogland is sketchy at best and yes most of us here at the moment were most DEFINITELY affected by that big power failure on Tueday (I believe it's made the news WORLD wide so I'm guessing you heard about it!) well guess what . . . That was the day Telia was born!
We like to make a bit of an entrance it seems. 

Delhi Day 5

So it seems one of the hidden treasures associated with iPads is that you can't upload photos to your blogs!! FANTASTIC!! Grrrrrrrrrr x infinite. So for the next three weeks my blogs will continue their  Plain Jane appearances sorry! And I had every intention of changing that trend!! So for any of my surrogacy blogging friends who would like photos of my accommodation or whatever please email me at the jacaranda843@gmail.com address and I will see what I can do!

Today was most definitely an interesting day for me and actually too many new things happened that I will need to give you the abbreviated version - which isn't like me - but there you go!

1. Woke 5.30am (my new normal)!!
2. Read email from husband (xx) updating latest frustrations with visa clowns.
3. Wanted to cry, scream, throw something. Thought things couldn't get any worse.
4. Then the power went out!
5. Cracked it! Decided today was the day I was going for a BIG walk ... ALL ON MY OWN and no amount of Scaredy Pantitis was going to stop me!! LOOK OUT WORLD NOW I'M CRANKY!!!
6. Actually managed to pull it off too!! Found two more little parks and didn't get lost! Gold Medal Australia!!!!
7. Back 'home' still no power! Hmmmmmm. Usually back on within half an hour!! 
8. Phone call from Vipul. Power expected to be out for at least SIX HOURS!
9. Ie no wifi, no tv, no air conditioning, no lights, no hope of staying sane - big breath went in!
10. Vipul still talking! Sending his driver to collect me and take me to another residence WITH power for the WHOLE day.
11. Gold Medal Vipul!!
12. Long story short - mini electrical crisis allowed me to meet some fellow bloggers 'just around the corner' from me because the driver picked them up as well!! Yipppeeeee!!! 
13. Had a great time catching up in real life!
14. Temporary residence for the day was another Green Leaf property 6km from us near Apollo Hospital. Lovely looking place - more stylish - but tiny rooms so more perfect for this situation than for an extended stay with a baby situation!
15. Only ended up staying for a couple of hours then power back on so after pizza and 'soda' allowed ourselves to be returned :) 
16. Popped back round to spend time with my new friends - outings planned etc :)
17. Also contacted Poonam to introduce myself and see if she may be able to help us with our visa bollocks situation - as well as the baby paperwork. . .when we have a baby that it!
18. If she can I will love her forever!!
19. Also packed Baby Bag for the hospital tonight just in case . . . . 
20. And now it's 9pm - I wish I was able to watch the Aussie OPALS play their basketball match tonight but apparently Indian Pay TV have decided that table tennis and wrestling are more important! RATS!!

Nightie Night Blogland. Thank you for continuing to support me!

Jacaranda xx

Welcome to Kalkaji!!

So it is fair to say I have experienced some minor challenges already but on a whole it's ALL VERY GOOD!!! I have been in New Delhi for 60 HOURS now so enough time to start getting a grip on the situation and even branch out a bit!!! And its thanks mostly to 'my man' Das and 'my landlord' Vipul for making the transition into this 'amazing world' so smooth and achievable! Email and Internet accessibility CONTINUE to flip in and out whenever they please - which does test my patience some-what but the lovely air conditioning keeps me from flipping in and out so that's good!! In an attempt to improve my email access at least I am going to experiment with a new gmail account instead. So without further ado please contact me on jacaranda843@gmail.com if you are in the neighborhood or can offer tips, advice or reassuring words :) I ventured outside for the second time today (with Das leading the way) to start exploring my immediate surroundings. He took me to a near-by park and by the time we got back 20 minutes later I was sweating like a pig! There has been no further word from the clinic since I 'reported in' Friday morning so no news is good news as they have my new cell number now so will get in touch when/if I need to scramble! As much as I REALLY look forward to our baby joining 'us' I am equally as keen for our baby to hold on until the other half of 'us' arrives!! Not likely but a girl can dream! Ok and now I will attempt some photos from this mornings walk. Bare with me ... XX. OH rats!! Now I can't seem to do that either - jeez I wish I was living with an IT/iPad expert to help me out ATM! Not to worry - time on my hands so will tackle that challenge next! Have a lovely day everyone and enjoy the Olympics! AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI!!! XX

I AM HERE!!

I have struck a few problems accessing SOME of the Internet - including my blog page (most disconcerting) - and up until 5 mins ago couldn't even Send an email (they came IN OK but wouldn't send) so I've been messing around with this iPad and fixed the email problem (YAY 4 ME!) so now holding breath to see if this works . . . . .

Jacaranda: that Blogger with all the Visa trouble!

Ha Ha - my new claim to fame!!

And now for the last post from my own house - I thought I'd mark the occassion with a marching band but they're a no show - so its just me and my visaless dearheart - busily making me spaghetti bolognese for tea - he's worried it will be the last beef I eat for 4 weeks! To be honest I'd be happy never eating beef again (ever) but in cattle country thats kinda ummm not allowed!

So this evenings rapid update is just to say - we've moved up one rank in the visa saga and are now (apparently) talking to Mohammed the 'Supervior' - Okaaaaay Mohammed where HAVE YOU BEEN??? So short story shorter - no visa yet - no idea when/if we'll ever see one - Mohammed supposedly 'onto it' -   me definitely OVER IT!

Packed bags for me 'n Poppett today and testing the true capacity of the zippers!

Oooops tea's ready!!

See you on the other side XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  

Keeping Positive

Monday 23rd July (might start adding the actual date to these blogs because I've noticed they're often wrong according to the automated ones!).

So - the sun is shining here today - and I am trying to stay focused on the good things rather than getting more knots in my stomach about the bad! Woke up at 4am this morning with eyes like saucers. So anyway enough of that - here's what my street looks like today ....

I believe our surrogate and baby have remained in good health and out of hospital since their little pre-term labour epidode(s) 12 days ago and so I am very grateful for that!!

There has been absolutely no joy from the Visa mob and if anything - only further heart ache. They have since requested copies of my husbands 'DNA Report' (!!!) which is very ambiguous and out of the blue - as with all of their requests!! No clues given earlier (again) that this 'report' would be needed. And for reasons too lengthy to go into my husbands DNA sample was only couriered off late last week so resulting REPORTS will be days/weeks away!!! ..... breathe .....

So - instead - we have scanned and sent over every OTHER document pertaining to the DNA testing procedure that we can lay our hands on (inluding a copy of the 'Form 2 Parentage Testing Procedure' from Sonic Genetics/DNA Labs signed off by our GP and witnessed by our JP!! - for crying out loud starting to feel like criminals!!)............. breathe ...............

We have been phoning and emailling several times a day now and seriously the level of frustrating-ness and vague-ness and sheer 'head banging-ness' we are going through is a best seller in itself! ....... breathe ...........

Unfortunately the advice to go for a Tourist Visa now instead of a Medical one has come 25 days too late because we are stuck and committed to this 'process' and at the end of the day - they've got our passport in their possession. And to cancel 'this process' and get the passport home alone would add at LEAST another 5 days to the delay. Then if we (or rather - my husband - who has been left behind in Australia) starts the application process for a Tourist Visa this time - I'm sure they will deny it anyway on the grounds of 'dodginess' and suspicion etc  ...... breathe ......

ANYWAY!!! Happy Days Happy Days Happy Days - Baby Good. Surrogate Good!! Sun is shining and I have my health!!!! Happy Happy Happy!!!

I am still set to fly out of Adelaide (solo) on Thursday morning (26th July) and will be landing shell-shocked, bug-eyed and more than a little bit scared - much much later that same day in New Delhi!!

A SHOUT-OUT NOW TO ALL IP's STIL IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD .... I need friends!!!!!!!  xx

Good luck to those of you experiencing the birth of your gorgeous little bundles at this time and I look forward to meeting and forgeing new friendships with you soon!!

I will be the one walking around with a distress flare strapped to my backpack!!

Today is NOT such a good day!

First things first - our lovely Surrogate is GOOD and our lovely baby is GOOD - and our lovely Baby is still inside our lovely Surrogate - so that is EXTREMELY GOOD - so not everything is BAD about today - by any stretch and so I am super duper grateful for that!!  ................. however .................... I just want to cry!!

It's all about my husbands [swear word] visa. We are at our whits end now and just want to crawl into a ball and hide under the bed. Why are they picking on US?? I lodged the Medical Visa application forms for him - online as instructed - on June 29th!! That's .... let me count .... 22 days ago. We were advised to wait until we were 32 weeks into our pregnancy to start organising these sorts of things ... we received our 32 weeks scan on June 26th. So my first tip now is - perhaps take that piece of advice and subtract a few weeks from it!!

My second piece of advice is to completely ignore the bit on the website that says "the preferred method" to submit your hardcopy application and supporting documents including your passport etc is to send it all via registered post to SYDNEY!

DO NOT DO THIS!!

Even if you live miles and miles from your capital city - as we do - I strongly suggest you completely distrupt your lives and make the long [swear word] journey to whereever they suggest you go as the 'second option' and WAIT IN A QUEUE for the indeterminate amount of time it takes to get the job done or at least speak to a HUMAN!!!!

Foolishly it seems we have done everything they have asked of us - jumped through a gazillion unprecedented hoops - and left feeling wretched for it! Yes I'm upset, and I'm getting more upset as I type this and I need to caaaaaaaalm down!! There is still no visa and nothing of comfort coming from the 'India Passport & Visa Services Centre - VFS Services  Australia' in Sydney to let us know there ever will be!!

So with no possible way for a visa to arrive here in time now (it takes 'Registered Post' 4 days to get from Sydney to our remote town in SA) - we need to cancel my husbands half of our ticket scheduled for next Thursday (July 26th) - and re-schedule for who-freakin'-knows-when!!

Sooooooo - I am going to New Delhi on my own and I have no idea if/when my husband can ever join me. Bit too 'Home and Away' dramatic? - I feel too sick in the stomach to care. I know I won't be the first to do this trip on my own - by any stretch - jeez by any stretch at ALL - and I know I will cope perfectly FINE - and at the end of the day our baby and our surrogate are FINE (and even discharged from the hospital now) so everything's REALLY FINE ...... but ..... okaaaay I am going to stop now and make myself a cup of something camomil-esque . . . .     

And someone needs to cyber-slap me!!     

Re-grouping ...

Yay - at 11.34pm last night we thankfully received word that despite being kept in hospital now for observation our surrogate is still carrying our baby and apparently ".... her uterus was relaxed..." Pheeewwww .... and breathe again.

Regarding the visa debarkle!! This is the email that firstly alerted me to the fact we may have a problem - this was their first email to me regarding my husbands visa application received and bare in mind we live 300km from ADELAIDE i.e. in SOUTH AUSTRALIA ....
 

This is in with regard to your visa application. You are to appear before the Consular Officer for interview with a copy of the agreement for surrogacy with {our surrogate}. You are also required to provide copy of the Australian legislation which permits you to enter into this kind of agreement.

So of course once I'd picked myself up off the floor I had to email back to politely explain a couple of things firstly -  we live in South Australia and would therefore find it rather difficult to attend an interview in Sydney (approx 1,500km away). Secondly that my husband could not attend any interviews anywhere just at the moment becasue he was stuck out on a rig in the absolute middle of freakin' nowhere and that he wouldn't be due back into Civilisation for another 7 days. I also explained that our applications had been sent to Sydney in the first place as it was the recommended option (i.e. recommended by them) on their web site.

So that was all 7 days ago now. In the meantime my tourist visa turned up 4 days ago (Tourist Visa). My husband has been without his passprt for 2 weeks. And for the benefit of anyone caught up in this little nightmare in the future here is a list of ALL documents requested and sent SO FAR by them:

• The Passport
• The completed MEDICAL visa application
• A letter from SCI (Dr Shivani) certifying who our surrogate was and that she was indeed 'our' surrogate and the expected date of birth of our baby and the approximate dates that SCI would request us to be in India.
• A letter from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship with our reference number and DNA Testing offer
• A letter from SCI (Dr Shivani) declaring my husband as the sole intended parent (i.e. and not the surrogate) of the child born via surrogacy and outlining the genetic connection to my husband.
• The fully signed copy of our agreement with our surrogate - yes all 7MB worth and 34 pages.
• Then it seemed that 'Page 32' was mising from said agreement and so 24 hours later that had to be retrieved and sent across ............  
• And NOW - this morning - a copy of a Marriage Certificate and...
• "an undertaking signed by you and your husband stating that you will take good care of the child born through surrogacy".

From where I'm sitting - it seems to be never ending and increasingly frustrating - the GOOD news of course is that our surrogate is more comfortable now and I didn't need to get on the next flight out of Adelaide! So my husband (who I got taken off the rig early) and I back home now re-grouping and breathing and murmering 'it'll be alright - it'll be alright'. Of course I am also busily arranging accommodation that may or may not be needed earlier than expected and the Green Leaf man is being very accommodating - phew and thank you so much!!

Jacaranda xx