Things people say…

It took a few weeks to figure what to say. I am showing now so people want to ask, “when is your baby due?” “is this your first?”, or if I’m with my kids they count and then say, “wow! number five?!”. If I don’t know them, I just answer and move on. It’s easier that way. But we are a part of a large church community our kids school community and our town isn’t all that big. I am going to see these people again, and I want to disclose now, so that when April comes, no one will wonder what I did with my baby.

So, I have been working out the wording. It’s impossible to tell people without it leading to a whole conversation. You can’t just drop that info and not have people react. It has mostly been positive. Some people think I am crazy, but most think it is sweet and exciting. They always have questions. How do you know the parents? Will you be able to give her up? What made you decide to do this? It’s a pretty regular bag of inquiry and I just give my canned response. It usually starts with, “This is not our baby, I am carrying her for another family”…pause…weird looks….surprise…..questions.

Some of the more entertaining responses have come from those of an older generation. Based on a few conversations I am gathering that many people of a certain age are unclear on the logistics of how that baby got in there. I have sense learned the “surrogate” is a term used to refer to a woman that provides egg and womb for a baby, and what I am doing is actually called “gestational carrier” (now that’s a mouthful). I think there is a misconception that getting pregnant with someone else’s baby might have required relations and for that reason they are disapproving. I have had the opportunity to share the MEDICAL process that we went through to get this baby where she is today, and that seems to have allowed for some eased concerns. Still funny.

So, mostly it’s fun to explain to people that she isn’t ours, that she is a gift for someone else. It’s well received with surprise and excitement, and over and over I hear what a blessing it is. What they don’t know, is that I’m the one getting blessed.