1 week down, 1 week to go! My scan and bloods last Wednesday went well. I was on my 2nd day of my bleed so they did my ultrasound and checked the thickness of the womb lining. Apparently it has to be under 5 to start treatment and mine was 3.6 so they gave me medication to be started that night. All medication is administered via injections in the stomach. I'm used to this with my insulin injections, however, there is alot more actual medication to push in and the needle is a lot longer so it feels slightly strange.  I started on Bemfola each evening for 4 days. Then from Sunday I ..read more

The day Josh was dreading has been and gone and he survived!        Our clinic appointment was on Friday. This visit was for our health checks to be done. We both had to have blood tests and I had to have an ultrasound scan to see my ovaries. Josh is terrified of needles and has never had a blood test before so he was very nervous all morning. To make it easier, I brought him some numbing cream and put that on an hour before our appointment. He did really well and I was so surprised at how he handled it. Once the needle was in, he was chatting away. They took lots of ..read more

We have come to a decision that we are going to stop the adoption process for now and wait until after our wedding. We have a year now until we get married so after this, we can then look into starting again with starting a family. It has not been an easy decision and we have both been very angry, upset and hurt which is why it has taken me a while to be able to sit and update this blog. I will tell you all the reasons behind it as we go on as best I can. We had the visit from the social workers and they read us the feedback that was given to them about us from the 4 preparation days we went ..read more

We are NEARLY there! It has taken abit longer than expected just because of the amount of checks and references that need to be done by people close to us, professionals and the authority. The adoption workers have everything they need now except 3 things: Josh is still waiting for his DBS to come back, my transplant hospital still haven't completed their reference and the medical advisor has to review our GP medicals to make sure they are happy with them. I am going to have to chase my hospital tomorrow - I know they are busy but they have had it since July and we can't move on until we hav ..read more

All our forms we were given during the first meeting (see previous blog) were sent off and on 20th June, we were officially accepted onto Stage 1 of the adoption process. As I write this blog, we are about halfway through.  At the start of July, all the people we chose and asked to be our referees received their letters. They had to answer a handful of questions about us, basically an in-depth character reference and send it back by the end of July. We each had our employer reference, a family member reference and two friends references. As far as I know, these have all been sent back and co ..read more

Our first meeting with our social worker happened on Thursday 20 June 2019. We were both nervous as we didn't know what to expect or what would be discussed.  Gemma was lovely and really easy to talk to, laid back and not too formal.  The meeting lasted 3 hours which went really quickly. During the meeting, we found out lots of information about the process but the main focus was about why we were going for adoption, if we were ready for the journey and the background of our family life, childhood and current situation.  There are 2 stages to becoming an adoptive parent. We are at stage 1 ..read more

We have started a new journey! It has taken me a little while to get my head, and emotions, together to be able to write this. I don't know why, as it is a really positive move we have made and we are excited for the journey, I think it has just all hit me at once. We have settled into our new home since the last blog. About a month ago, after a big Ikea trip to buy furniture for the house, we went for a meal and Josh suddenly mentioned that he had been thinking for a while about adoption. This shocked me. We haven't really mentioned adoption, and when I first met Josh, he wasn't too bothere ..read more

Just a little update on where we are at the moment with our surrogacy journey seeing as yesterday was Mothers Day... We have managed with the help of many of you amazing people to raise just over £3500 towards our little baby. We need the same amount on top of that and we will be ready to start making some embryos. We have been talking with family and each other and thinking about fundraising but, to be honest, at the moment we are very busy in our work and home life that it would be too much for us to organise. I also do not wan to rely on other people purely to make this happen for us. It ..read more

First of all, we would like to thank absolutely everyone for your messages and donations since our last blog post. We were rather upset to get the decision but by the end of the evening, we were so positive and happy with the massive amount of support that was sent to us. It was the worst time of year to get the news just weeks before Xmas but despite this, people still donated. It didn't matter how much was donated we appreciate everything. It all adds up. We would like to mention a few things that stood out and really overwhelmed us... First of all, the biggest thank you goes to Liz Leese ..read more

We got our letter today in the post. It's not good news: We have been declined funding for our surrogacy. We can't appeal and can't complain. Basically the decision has been made because, apparently, there were no exceptional circumstances (just carrying a baby could potentially kill me or shorten my life dramatically) and we didn't fit the funding criteria. They have sent me the criteria and it is because my medical condition and treatment doesn't affect my eggs or Josh's sperm. For example, if I had cancer or was about to receive cancer treatment and this was to affect my eggs then we wo ..read more