Closed Doors and Opened Windows

Things were looking up. Last night, we got an email with a new batch of egg donors and one possible surrogate. We both felt comfortable selecting an egg donor from one of the three new profiles. Sigh of relief...

Then, this morning, when we went to do the semen collection, we got the proverbial Indian carpet yanked out from underneath our feet. The IVF doctor, Dr. Shweta, had read an article in the Times of India that said that the laws in India were changing and that surrogacy would not be an option for a same sex couple.

Like many things in India, the actual meaning of what is transpiring legislatively is difficult to ascertain. In July of 2009, India decriminalized homosexuality. But from reading the article, it appears that the person giving commentary about the ramifications of this bill either isn't aware, or doesn't understand that homosexuality was already decriminalized in India. In any case, Dr. Shweta was uncomfortable proceeding with our IVF and surrogacy because she felt that she could not get institutional approval for surrogacy for a same-sex couple.

So, two things are happening now. First we are waiting to see what happens with this legislation. Second, the good people at Select Surrogacy are starting to explore the possibility of working with another clinic and another doctor.

Hopefully a window of possibility will open somewhere.

Egg-celent

In the realm of difficult decisions, deciding who will be your "baby mama" has to rank right up there with the toughest of them. Chad and I have looked at four egg donor profiles now and, frankly, I'm not sure exactly how I'm supposed to feel. Does anyone jump up and down after reading a donor profile?

This is hard...

One Out Of Seven Billion

"In the midst of all the handwringing over population explosion in the country, the Indian government might miss preparing for a global record-setting event — the birth of the baby that would take the population of planet earth to the seven billion mark."

(The Times Of India, January 24, 2011)

Chad and I were walking our dog this evening around the embassies here in New Delhi. We do this every weeknight as it keeps our labrador, Jyoti, very happy and it gives us some uninterrupted time when we can catch up on our day and how life has been treating us. As is frequently the case, Chad was filling me in on the day's news stories. Today he caught me up on the growing world population, as if walking out in India wasn't enough insight into the crowdedness of our planet. I don't read the news very often, as I have Chad's news service that keeps me up to speed on everything I need to know (and his retelling of news stories is far more entertaining than reading it for myself). So, for those of you without your own news-agregator-spouse sitting next to you, I will give you the highlights from the article:

• The 7th billion earthling will most likely be born in October or November.
• In India, 51 babies are born each minute.
• Just one state in India (Uttar Pradesh) has more births per minute than any other country except China.
• Almost one fifth of the babies born in the world are born in India.

In other news - the kind not covered by the Times of India - Chad and I had our second meeting with the IVF doctor and the surrogacy specialist this past Saturday. We are officially starting our journey to having a baby. Yep, we're hoping for just one little guy (or gal) out of seven billion. Just one!