Bun Without an Oven

January 2024 – our time on the waiting list to be on the “active search” list has come to an end. The waiting period was kind of easy, because the expectation is set, nothing unexpected will happen in this time. But, since we’re now active, I’ve found that my heart skips a beat every time my phone lights up with a new email. Is it the agency? Have they found our person? 

January 22, Jan and I getting ready for bed. My phone lights up and it’s all happening in a swirl. I’m opening an email from our agency: 

On Jan 22, 2024, at 22:27, our agency wrote:

Hello Jan and Kate!

I hope this email finds you well. I’m reaching out for an exciting reason as we have a potential candidate in mind for you! This candidate is a 39-year-old,  mother of 2, living in a gun-free and smoke-free household in Wisconsin. This candidate has a private, surrogacy-friendly insurance policy (based on a completed review of her 2023 insurance booklet) and she is willing to leave all termination and testing related decisions up to you during the journey! Today, we sent all of her records to Heartland Center for Reproductive Medicine to initiate their records review process for pre-approval (which takes approximately 3-4 weeks.)

Please let me know I you have any questions, and I will be sure to keep you updated throughout the process. 😊

Oh my god oh my god oh my god. My eyes are reading wildly and faster than my brain can process. I somehow hone in on: “candidate in mind for you!” And I literally scream and throw my phone on the bed in front of me. Jan runs in the room – “what was that!”. I point to the phone. Now he’s opening his email and we have this shared moment of holy shit… this is actually happening. Now I’m grinning uncontrollably and starting to hop around excitedly. It’s 20 minutes before we usually go to bed during the week… but for real, how am I supposed to sleep now!? 

We’re so both so excited. Jan has a little more control over his emotions and is telling me to lay down and close my eyes. We still have busy work days ahead and we need sleep! But we’re both laying in bed, our minds consumed with thoughts of Wisconsin. 🙂