I adore the raw happiness of the people I love...

I love this little piece Emily King wrote...

There really isn’t anything I adore more then to celebrate the raw happiness of the people I love. To just feel their presence as if it were the warmth of their soul holding yours. To see the familiar creases that fold gently beside their eyes when they smile and to hear their belly deep laugher grow into an uncontrollable uproar.  

To expose those pearly whites over the things they subconciously do, knowing they take their english breakfast brew with a dash of milk and one third of sugar, the sight of their matching flannelette jimmy jammers, tucked in each night, the never-ending phrases that catch on quicker than the common cold, understanding the importance of their tomato sauce to party pie ratio, enjoying the jingle of their gold bangles housed on their right wrist, relying on them to forever have their trusty tube of pawpaw for the sake of your own chapped lips, to just watch them, being their most natural selves, and to revel in the simple beauty of each other. It is so humbling to acknowledge the special people in your life, to accentuate their defining qualities and shed light on their unknown distinctiveness.

All i ask // tilt your mind set ever so slightly, re-focus your eyes and you too will see it. It needs not to be a celebration of grand significance to share love & thanks. I say hip hip hooray to those things that almost go unnoticed, memorialise your favourite humans habits, cast streamers and allow balloons to fly over the moments that make them, them. 

Find a grandparent...

I found this the other day. It is a very interesting concept and a beautiful way to connect with the more mature generation. 

Find a grandparent

http://www.findagrandparent.org.au

Be part of Find a Grandparent, the website connecting surrogate grandparents and families, and help bringing the generations together!

Some of the local authorities are supporting the initiative. 

"The City of Melville will be hosting a free information session on Wednesday, 18 November 2015, for the Find a Grandparent program, aiming to create meaningful social connections between young families and seniors.

The Find a Grandparent program is a Sydney based initiative that aims to connect families with a surrogate grandparent who will be able to share in happy family moments, such as the holiday season and school-based events like plays and sports carnivals.

City of Melville Mayor Russell Aubrey said the program is a wonderful initiative that will help bring people of different ages together to create a sense of family and community belonging.

“This program will bring families and seniors together to share new experiences and create great memories with each other,” he said.

“Many families in Australia live without older relatives and would welcome a surrogate grandparent into their family to pass on wisdom, stories and help raise and spend time with their children.

”Likewise many seniors have family that don’t live nearby and can feel lonely and isolated not being part of a family unit. The Find a Grandparent program is a great initiative to help support and bring people together of different generations for a mutually beneficial positive outcome.”

An information session and presentations from people who have created their own ‘grandfamily’ will be held at the Willagee Community Centre on the corner of Archibald and Winnacott Streets in Willagee on Wednesday, 18 November 2015, between 1:00pm to 2:30pm.

Bookings are essential and can be made by calling 9364 0295 or in person at Willagee Community Centre.

For more information call 1300 635 845 | 9364 0666"

Picnic in the park

Today, I met with some of WA's surrogates and arranging parents. It was a lovely morning chatting about where everyone was in the surrogacy journey. 

There were beautiful little babies, potential parents waiting with a pregnant surrogate and others still trying to find an altruist surrogate. It was a diverse collection of people all hopeful and positive. 

There was a general agreement that WA is a long way behind compared to the eastern states. Surrogacy has been legal for much longer in those states compared to WA, so often we have to explain details to the people we bump into in this journey. 

Today, was really rewarding. It is really nice to know that there are a few of us in WA. It is a great support group. 

The little ones are just adorable and the ladies are glowing with mother love. 

Market Madness

A friend and I had fun on the weekend. We made some beautiful, bright kids clothes for a market.

I called mine Garden Tea Party - 2015 Spring collection

It is good to keep busy with things you love to do, especially when it feels like it is taking forever for things to happen.

Feel free to have a look at the blog page I threw together. It needs a lot of attention!


http://randrmoda.blogspot.com.au


Remember, the first step is the hardest, so find something you love and go for it.

Good luck

Mukinbudin Spring Festival

Once a year the fabulous people of Mukinbudin put all their efforts into a three day spring festival. This year…

• ·      A fantastic dry boat race for all ages, those mad red hat ladies were spectacular
• ·      Baby animals for the babies
• ·      Craft and cakes
• ·      Clothes and jewelry
• ·      Food pop up vans
• ·      A band to entertain those that love to rock’n’roll

It is so much fun going home to catch up with family and friends. I had enough hugs and well wishes for a life time.

Ryan and I had some very special friends come with us, which made the weekend all the more important to us. 

You can see I really got into the swing of things and the sand pit was not the only place for the kids. 

It was a fabulous day which ended with a big cook up with wine and friends in a warm and welcoming home. 

A beautiful quote...

"It's the ultimate expression of hope, isn't it, to have children."

Cate Blanchett, at Oscars 22 Feb, 2015

You never know where you might find a surrogate

Trying to find a surrogate is such a daunting task.

We did not really know where to start and it took many months before we thought we knew enough about the altruistic surrogacy process to talk to people about surrogacy. It took a while to get the strength to even start the journey.

This is our story about what we did to try find an altruistic surrogate. It is very important that you know the legalities of your State, things we can do in Western Australia are illegal in other jurisdictions.

Once I realised that my ongoing medication would have a detrimental impact on my ability to have a child I was very concerned. Ryan and I talked about what we might do.

The first thing we did was meet all my specialists. Rather than rely on what non-professionals were saying we thought we go straight to the people that had all my results. These meetings let us know our options. You have to be ready to hear things you might not want to hear. This was not the case for me, but we had to be prepared for some very honest discussions.

I then started to search on the web. There is so much information on the internet but you have to be very discrete and discerning about what you are reading. This gave me a general idea about surrogacy.

Ryan and I then went to a couple of IVF clinics. Where we could get an interview we did, and asked as many questions as possible. These people are professionals in a very advanced form of medical intervention. We were very glad to have people talk to about IVF and surrogacy. This process costs a lot of money and you need a referral from your GP but I think it is worth it.

So at some point we decided that we knew enough about the technical details and it was time to start the search.

We were told to be as honest as possible when communicating with people about our desire to try surrogacy. We also knew that the best possible surrogate is a family member, like a sister or cousin.

For us the most important thing was that someone would offer, without feeling any obligation. Intending parents and surrogates have to entre into this arrangement for all the right reasons.

We started small. We talked to our parents about what we were hoping to do.

I then found all the blogs and forums I could find on the internet. There are heaps of places to talk to surrogates and intending parents on the web. All the links I found are listed under the “useful links” page.

I spent months just watching and reading peoples comments and blogs. It is important that you get a good feel for what people share on the forum. You will find people will have different opinions and you may not agree with them all. We believe forums and blogs are just like real life, you need to be respectful of people; if you are supportive and helpful people will be attracted to you; if you are negative and angry people may back off from helping you. Whenever I posted I made sure I had a clear mind, felt relatively happy and was not super tired. It is easy to be positive when you are mentally happy and possibly have a big block of chocolate to eat at the same time.

You have to be prepared to spend many hours, days, weeks, months and even years before a surrogate starts to chat with you.

I found people really happy to help. It is a lovely community with many people egger to tell their story and provide advice. Embrace the stories and learn from them.

Some things we have thought of doing:

• ·      Talk to our immediate family
• ·      Talk to extended family and friends *
• ·      Take part in surrogacy specific forums
• ·      Send FaceBook messages to friends
• ·      Ask friends to send out a facebook message to their friends
• ·      Start a blog
• ·      Meet surrogates – we are flying to other States to meet a surrogate that has already been through the process
• ·      Meet with other arranging / intending parents
• ·      Advertisement in parenting newspaper
• ·      Mail box drop

* Ask for friends and family to help but do not make them feel under pressure. Remember to listen about their lives. It can be boring if you only talk about on topic. It is super hard to not want to only talk about surrogacy but slowly getting family and friends on side has a better long term outcome.

Be ready for a long journey, that has a focus on balance. Make sure you have some fun or enjoyable things to do other than just finding a surrogate. Take regular breaks from the search, so it does not become all consuming.

Good luck with your search for a very special woman to help.