Surrogacy for Dummies

Yesterday when I dropped Lil off at her day camp, a 5 year old bounced up to me and announced:
"I'm getting a sister too but my Mommy is making her in her tummy. Why do you have to go all the way to China to get Lily's sister?"
I have to admit to being a bit caught off guard for 8:30 in the morning, and scanned my brain for the appropriate response. I was pretty sure she didn't want a lesson in embryology or a description of my reproductive inadequacies so I responded: "I can't make babies in my tummy so we're adopting Lily's sister from China."
I clearly had missed the point completely, as the response was: "why does Lily have to miss two weeks of camp when my Mommy could make a sister for her?".
After giving the teacher the "birds and bees" alert I quickly escaped to my Mom van before the junior RE pulled out a surrogacy contract.
However, this little firecracker had a point. It would have been an easier, cheaper and faster process to do TESA/ICSI with egg donation and a gestational carrier than it has been to go through this adoption process. But that isn't the point for us.
Ironically, it isn't about making babies, but providing Lil with a sibling with whom she can share a history and heritage.
I found a reproductive loophole when I joined Tony in his practice, and now I am able to reproduce without consequence, to my hearts content. And as romantic as pregnancy looked to me 20 years ago, seeing 5000 pregnant women in the last 15 years has convinced me that I don't have the bladder control for it.
So we're off to China this week knowing that Lil and Grace could not be more our daughters if I had pushed them out myself. There is something familiar in our new ones face...a combination of her Daddies eyes and her grandma's smile. We will understand in a few short days, that she was always meant to be our daughter.
The internet is not always as available in China but we will try our best to blog through this exciting time...signing off for now...