giving something back

I will never forget the day I gave birth to my daughter. In one word it was magic, I fell pregnant naturally on our first attempt. I never stopped to think how lucky we were at the time. Three years later .... I am happily married with a healthy daughter and a nice home. My husband and I have decided not to have any more children.

Life is good. I did stop to wonder why we were so lucky I wanted to give something back. At this time a close friend had been trying to conceive for 2 years without success. She was frustrated and spent a lot of time crying on my shoulder. This is why I noticed an article in the paper about egg donation. I researched a lot about the procedure I offered to help my friend in this way if she needed me to. She was touched and grateful but at long last she was pregnant. After two months of research I was ready to do an egg donation. One problem I had not discussed it with my husband. He surprised me by being 100% supportive. Next step was to find a couple looking for a donor. I was advised by WFC to look in the Sydney's Child magazine. But when I read all the adverts placed by couples seeking a donor I had no idea how I would choose. There were so many. I read them all again and the only way was to choose the couple that had been trying to conceive the longest.

The woman was 40 and felt time was running out for her. I took an instant liking to her. We talked a lot over the next few weeks and agreed on how we were going to take this journey together. We agreed if she became pregnant our relationship would end at this point. We were both happy with this. So we started. She was by my side every step of the way. My husband and I survive the counselling. I was time for blood test, drugs, ultrasound etc. As scary as it sounds, thanks to the very organised staff it was easy and I really did not have to think about much. The drugs were not as bad as I thought. I maintained a normal lifestyle without major side effects. The injections were scary but in reality, easy and painless. Time for egg collection I never had second thoughts about what I was about to do, but I was a little scared.

On the morning of egg collection I met 5 other women waiting for egg collection for themselves. I will never forget these amazing women who had been through so much already. They all had been trying for so long, their stories truly inspired me and I will never forget them.

I was put to sleep for the procedure, the doctor got 22 eggs, 17 were frozen and 2 were freshly transferred. Now we wait two weeks and I prayed every day that she would be pregnant. It was a long two weeks. I was also a little sad if she was pregnant we would say goodbye. I will miss her. We became close against our wills. Two weeks later ... So today I discovered that she is pregnant and 3 hours later I am still crying. I am so overwhelmed and amazed that it worked, I am so proud, happy, emotional and relieved. I feel privileged to be part of this miracle. Apart from giving birth to my own child this is the most amazing thing I have ever done. I will never regret it. I might even do it again ... someday.

Her pregnancy is thriving and although we have severed ties we agreed to light a candle for each other every mothers day. An extra big thankyou to all the wonderful nurses at WFC you are truly amazing people I will never forget. And thanks to my biggest hero God, never lose faith