Decisions, Decisions...

So I thought I'd write a brief post about how we chose this path and our clinic. I stumbled across Indian surrogacy from an ad on Google of all places. To be honest, I never gave surrogacy any serious consideration. Being male and being gay, I never thought I would have the opportunity to have my own child. It never really bothered me either - I had always considered adoption as a viable alternative. Unfortunately, the adoption process in the State of Florida is wrought with bureaucracy and inefficiency. It was enough to make us just about give up. Until I saw that ad on Google. The idea of actually being a father left both of us with such a feeling of excitement and happiness. I guess that Google ad changed our lives.

Now what? Where to go? What to do? I think I stayed up researching "surrogacy+India" until 2 or 3am the night I read that ad. All I can say is that it felt like the right thing to do for both of us. Immediately we said "Let's go for it." It became obvious very quickly that there are really only a handful of clinics in India with a good international reputation. I researched all of them. I then contacted all of them. The responses from the clinics couldn't have been more different. One sent a brochure without answering any of my questions at all. The other didn't get back to me for about 3 weeks. This helped me narrow the field down even further. I then requested references from the clinics - I also found a few on these blogs.  In the end, SCI was really the only clinic that met my criteria. Although I have not had any contact with Dr. Shivani, I like how the clinic is run from what I've experienced. Her client managers have answered all of my questions and concerns - usually within record time. I remember thinking - I just sent them an e-mail 30 minutes ago. It must be about 3 am in Australia and they are already writing me back. This is reassuring for neurotic people like me!

The next decision was picking a donor. This wasn't hard at all. I was sent about 50 or 60 donor profiles. Initially I thought it would be a much more difficult process. I was so excited to get the profiles. I looked through them all in about 3 minutes. No, No, No....No, She's The One! Something in her eyes drew me to her. Luckily she was available and will be ready for us in April. Fingers crossed...

I thought I'd leave you with a picture of my four-legged babies.

Pancho and Tito