I passed my psych eval

Today was my phone appointment for the psych eval. She said I passed with flying colors. WOOT! I'm hoping the clinic is pretty close to done reviewing my OB records. I'd love to get my medical screening done by the end of the month and be in contract by the end of September. But who knows. It's all gone so fast and so smoothly so far, here's hoping it keeps going that way.

My first appointment!

I got an email from my case manager for the screening phase. She sent me a lot of info and some paperwork. The investigator is working on my background check, the insurance agent should be contacting me soon about applying for the insurance policy, my attorney will be contacting me to start working on the contract, and once my psych eval is complete and good to go and the fertility clinic has finished reviewing my OB records from my last pregnancy, they'll contact me to schedule me to come down for my medical screening. I also spoke with the person who will be doing my psych eval. I have an appointment for Friday morning to speak with her on the phone for that.

I'm so excited that things are moving forwards. :)

The Great Insurance Debate

I may not be that old in the grand scheme of things but I've been around the online military significant other/spouse/family member community for a few years; I've been on various discussion forums, Facebook groups, and Facebook pages. I've seen multiple of each implode, split, and spawn new groups (for various reasons). One thing I know about surrogacy is that when a military spouse announces that she's going to be a Surrogate (whether GS or TS), it often involves a very heated and passionate debate; what about? Insurance, of course.

The insurance that military members and their dependents are covered by is called TriCare. For all it's foibles and occasional frustrations, it's actually pretty darned good insurance. Many people, both inside and outside the military community, object to military spouses using TriCare to cover healthcare for a compensated surrogacy; the idea I've seen among those who object usually seems to be that they see it as "theft", and benefiting financially from tax-payer dollars.

This post is NOT to discuss/debate whether or not it is ethical to use TriCare for surrogacy; I will indiscriminately remove comments on that topic, this is not a debate. My sole purpose in even touching on TriCare and surrogacy is to explain what I will be doing for insurance so as to hopefully stave off any questions and potentially nasty conversations about whether I personally will be using TriCare for a surrogacy. I will insert here that this is only my own personal decision and I do not make any judgment of others who choose differently.

I personally will not be using TriCare for my surrogacy. Without even getting into the ethical questions, it's pretty up in the air as to whether TriCare covers surrogacy or not and, if they do, how much and what they cover. In my reading and conversations with other surrogates, I have come to the conclusion that the answer to that depends on who at TriCare you talk to, what mood they're in, their feelings about surrogacy, how the doctor/hospital/etc. codes the insurance claims, etc. There's just too much uncertainty and I'd rather not end up having to fight insurance and potentially end up with me/the IP's getting stuck with medical bills.

I was very up front with the Agency in my profile about the fact that I'm not comfortable using TriCare for surrogacy; what will happen, since medical bills are the responsibility of the IP's, is that the Agency will assist them in getting private insurance for me (here are several companies/plans that cover surrogacy). I'll have to be on insurance before any procedures are done, so I'm hoping that should be getting started pretty soon.

Anyways, there you have it. No TriCare for this surrogacy. Thanks for reading. I welcome any comments and input about companies and plans that other surrogates have experience with. :)

Not really an update

Sorry for the lack of updates. There hasn't really been anything to update about, except that my OB faxed my records from my last pregnancy to the agency in a VERY timely fashion. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my OB/GYN?

One question I've been hearing a lot is "How will you be able to give the baby up after it's born? Won't that be really hard?". Obviously I can't speak to how it will impact me emotionally, but I can tell you the mindset that I have going into surrogacy.

This baby is not mine to "give up" at all. There won't be a genetic connection whatsoever between us. As a Gestational Surrogate, the embryo that is transferred via IVF will be composed entirely of someone else's sperm and eggs. Whether that's donor for both, IP for both, or IP for one and donor for the other depends entirely on the individual couple.

Anyways, I can't give up something that was never mine to begin with. I'm being entrusted as a caretaker for someone else's baby, sort of a babysitter for 9 months. That's the mindset I'm taking into this. :)

Game, set, match!

I talked to the Intended Parents yesterday. The conversation went really well and we're matched! That moved a lot faster than I expected, now to hope the rest of the process goes as smoothly and as well.