We have safely made it to Seoul, N. Korea. Hubby feels like crap but is being a major trooper. Twelve hours down, another nine or so to go. Then we can have a sleep and shower at the hotel before the first appointment.
Wow, this much flying is not high on our list of favourites, but we are managing. It will just be really nice to be able to settle in at our hotel after the flights.
I have to say that bibimbap is delicious….
wee update before i go to sleep (if i can sleep with all the excitement).
we are flying out tomorrow, everything is ready (pretty much).
unfortunately, hubby has gotten the sickness that i had last week, so he’s feeling totally crappy. when i said we would have to cancel the trip if i felt that bad, i am glad that he’s stronger than me in that way (so far), but maybe he’s not hit the worst of it yet. i have my fingers crossed that he will feel ok tomorrow, and i am sooooooooooooo happy that he can sleep on planes. i am hoping he will just sleep through the worst of it (he’s sleeping now).
anyways, the next post will probably be from Korea or Mumbai…. our real journey (the important part) starts tomorrow!
i feel like i should close like a letter here… like “talk soon” or “talk to you later” or “bye for now”… but i guess i will be taking the blog with me on the road, so yeah…. i think i always have a bit of an awkward moment trying to close a blog post; it’s like an email without an easy ending… wow, this one is dragging out a bit… clearly i am overtired.
ciao y’all!
the forecast for the next five days is rain, rain, lightening, lightening, lightening! i am so freaking excited about this (just so long as we can fly in).
I LOVE EXTREME WEATHER!!!!!
i found this picture of lightening over the Mumbai skyline on a National Geographic website; it was part of a photo contest in 2012 and taken by Shannon Ellsworth. hopefully they won’t mind that i borrowed it to emphasize the beauty i am looking forward to!!
so, in reality, i wasn’t even close to being better at last post, my body faked me out and i thought i felt better, but i wasn’t. now i am feeling quite a bit better and am going to be able to start doing what needs to be done to get ready for the trip. i can’t believe we fly out in 2.5 days, it’s come up so fast!!!
our first appointment with the clinic is booked for the first day we arrive, so i can get the first ultrasound and i would imagine the first shots.
we are very excited and nervous; i guess this visit to India is going to finally answer whether we can have a baby or not…. so the next few weeks are key.
good luck to all the other couples out there who are going through the same thing at the same time. i know of at least four others on very similar timing, and whether we ever meet any of you or not, it’s nice to know there are others in a similar boat, on a similar journey. if you are reading this in the future and are about to go through this journey, i would recommend you do whatever you can to talk to others who are going through it to, it’s just comforting is all.
anyways, lots of preparation work to do, so signing off for now.
i have been sooooo sick the last 48 hours or so, i guess i had some sort of a stomach bug, and it’s been so bad i haven’t been able to read, watch tv, do anything much on the computer (the screen movement makes me nauseated). doing simple tasks has made me so weak i have actually laid down on the floor… pathetic i tell you!!!
i think i have turned a corner though, i am feeling a bit better, though still really weak, as i didn’t eat anything that whole time except two bananas and some gatorade. i think i will try some chicken noodle soup today, get my strength back.
i cannot tell you how happy i am that this happened now instead of on travel day, because i can honestly tell you that i was so sick i would have cancelled the trip; there is NO WAY i could have traveled that way. none, zero, zippo, zilch. ok, maybe if they had a bed on the plane that was right next to the bathroom… but even that would have been pushing it.
oh well, moving forward! five days til we are in the air. let’s just cross our fingers that hubby doesn’t get it… send those vibes again for him folks, they seem to have been very successful so far whenever i have asked!
we are flying out a week today. this time our flight is almost identical, EXCEPT the ridiculous 7.5 hour layover in Seattle… this time we don’t have that, so it’s going to be much better.
i am hoping i can sleep on the plane this time; i won’t be pulling an all-nighter the night before, as it clearly did not help with the sleeping. i will try to get a normal night sleep so that at least i am well-rested at the start of the journey, unlike last time.
how does one pack for a three week trip? it’s been awhile. we are so bad at packing, we always pack too much, but i can’t imagine packing too much for three weeks. i guess we just have to focus on only bringing stuff we know we will wear. i hate having a item still folded nicely when i return home, knowing i didn’t even pull that thing out of my suitcase the whole time. waste of space!
the hotel has a laundry service, so maybe we will just use that so we can pack less.
i am already thinking of missing my cats. it’s been a long time since the older boys have missed us for three weeks, and the younger boy never has had us go away for very long at all, and since he was abandoned outside before we found him, i hope he doesn’t think we are leaving him as well. at least they have a familiar face to look in on them a few times a day and keep them to their routine. thankful for good friends during this journey…. that’s for sure!!!
gathering together the loose ends of stuff we need to take with us, will start making a packing list tonight, and we both have the weekend and Monday off before we leave, so we will have some time to get organized and spend quality time with “the boys”.
oh yeah, i also found out we didn’t ever get our third shot of Twinrix, so we will have to go get it on Thursday. another expense, but better than having hepatitis…
we got our mosquito spray with DEET and our anti-malaria pills… sunscreen is probably readily available over there… or maybe it will just rain the whole time… what else? what else? i guess that’s what the list will be for… making sure we have thought of everything.
signing off for now!
well, the Indian Consulate put both of our passports in one envelope and they were delivered today, together…. so we are good to go!
the one strange thing about the visas, is that they are stamped “Registration with FFRO required within 14 days of arrival in India” and an accompanying letter notes that we must submit a bunch of documents to the FFRO before we leave India with the baby(ies). i have heard from another couple recently who applied for their medical visas for surrogacy, and they got the same letter and stamp. so we are confused.
do they think we are visiting to pick up the baby this time? do we need to report to the FFRO just to keep them informed? is this letter just letting us know that we need these documents at the time we pick up the baby in the future? hummmm….
on the Bureau of Immigration, India website, it looks like anyone on a medical visa has to report to the FFRO office within 14 days of arrival, so i guess we will sort it out when we are there. we will have plenty of time, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
so, it’s confusing, but probably not an issue, and we are soooooo excited to have our visas in hand in time to make our trip.
thank you to the extremely nice Indian Consulate gentleman, and to the very grumpy courier guy who delivered the visas today!
i just wanted to note the fact that we will be in Mumbai during this year’s monsoon season. apparently they start almost like clockwork, and this year they started a few days early, just a few days ago. judging how hot it was when we were there early in May, and also by the various blog posts i have found describing the first rains this year, new life is springing forth everywhere and people’s moods have changed with the freshness. apparently people do get grumpy because the rains cause train delays and traffic jams, but it’s a better temperature and it’s not so dusty and overwhelmingly hot. i have got my phone set to show me the weather in a few places, including Mumbai, and i have happily noticed that thunder and lightening storms are often predicted (three days this week!!!!). living in the Lower Mainland we rarely get any of these, and i am EXTREMELY excited about this!
anyone who knows me, knows i love the rain, and especially when it’s warm outside and i get ridiculously excited about storms. i ensured that we got hubby a rain coat and that both of us will bring some sort of plastic shoes.
8 days today is our planned trip, and judging by how i am feeling today, this is just the start of my excitement.
i will let you all know when i have our visas in hand.
hubby and i have done some travel in different countries, and one thing that is handy to know, is that unlike Canada, many cultures encourage price negotiations on pretty much anything. while we may have talked about negotiations for taxi prices in India (maybe not, i can’t recall?), i wanted to point out that i was able to do some great negotiating with our hotel general manager as well. in our case, i asked if the hotel had rates for longer stays (we will be there for three weeks) and the general manager offered us approximately 30% off the posted rates. also, in the case of this hotel, the internet is not included; you have to pay a daily rate, but i was also able to negotiate 25% off of that price.
it’s also good to see if you can get things included, and in our case a daily breakfast buffet is included, so that’s a savings of a meal a day that would normally would have had to worry about. also, did i mention our place has a kitchenette? that’s so we can do some cooking and not be tied to restaurant and hotel food. plus, we can store bottled water in the fridge so we always have some on hand. i am pretty happy about that.
in my VERY limited experience, i have so far found the people of India pleasant and open to negotiation, and since the surrogacy journey can be very expensive, it can’t hurt to try to save a little where you can. after all, some of these hotels (especially if you aren’t staying in a five star) will do much better if they have positive reviews online and have cultivated a clientele of people who will pass on the word that they are a great place to stay, so try to start a relationship with the hotel manager and staff even before you arrive.
i have sent a series of emails with the hotel staff of our hotel, asking questions, showing interest, and i think this is important. you will probably get to know staff fairly well on visits of three weeks or more.
after our visit, i will blog about how the hotel was and if we would recommend it. i can’t imagine we will stay there for the long haul third visit if we are lucky enough to have a baby, because it would be soooo expensive to stay there for a few months. i am hoping we can find a small apartment or something, and this is something i will tackle once the bun is in the oven.
sorry to be so intense about this, but getting our visas in time was a big worry for me, so i just need to share every step of the way.
i have gotten a courier tracking confirmation for my visa. maybe they will both be in the same envelope, that would be awesome! it’s supposed to be delivered tomorrow! if they are not in the same envelope, then i am sure hubby’s will come early this week as well.
so, looks like it’s a go!!! wooooohooooo!!
