Farewell & Alvida

Well, after 5 weeks and some of the most memorable days of our lives, we are headed home.  We fly out tonight on a 12:15am flight - non-stop to Chicago and then a quick connection to Dallas.  We are so happy to get home but we will always have fond memories of our time in Delhi.  It is stressful, chaotic and foreign but it is also the home of our children's mother and birth mother and because of that it will always hold a special place in our lives.

 An image I won't soon forget!  I visited this location (the MHA) on four separate occasions.

Our investigation, which was required in order to issue the boys' visas, took exactly 8 days to complete.  We had wonderful help from Mr Chawla and his associate Radhika.  We paid extra money for expediting the process because we are eager to get home.  I suspect we could have saved the money and let Radhika work our case at a less frantic pace - if we had been comfortable staying another week, but no sense in second guessing after the fact.  I can tell you that it would have been stressful beyond belief to attempt to navigate the investigation without Radhika.  Even this morning, despite being assured our visas would be issued, there was a last minute scare.  We were at the FRRO almost an hour as Radhika ran between officials - appearing somewhat upset at times - leaving the room and returning. We feared for a bit that perhaps this was not over after all.  As it turns out, the officials are simply being extra, extra careful with the departure of these surrogacy babies.  Several signatures later and we paid the Rs 3700 ($83 USD) for the actual visas and were on our way. 

There is much speculation about why this happened but I can now share that it appears this is all the result of one couple who have tried to leave without paying their bill and it just happens they are SCI clients.  The odd thing is that this very person who is now stuck in Delhi has taken to posting nasty, anonymous comments on others' blogs and posting untrue details on forum message boards.  I have always, from the day I started this blog, worked at telling the truth - not sugar coating - but always trying to find the positive in a very challenging, emotional process.  Why on earth does this person feel the need to single us out for persecution?  Why would this person blame their troubles on Dr Shivani?  I don't know this person and God knows I don't care to but I write this and ask that you please stop posting anonymous comments on my blog and others'.  I will NEVER publish them anyway so save your time - use your time trying to dig yourself out of your own mess that you created and have now created for the rest of us.  And to satisfy you constant questioning - here are your answers - so grab a pen and paper Ms Anonymous...

1.  I do not work for Dr Shivani.  I love her dearly, but she is my doctor, not my employer.  We have a professional relationship whereby I paid her for services and she delivered them in a manner that exceeded our expectations - thus, I say nice things about her.  That's how it works.
2.  If you read my blog you would know I have a full time job, and fortunately, I make a nice income and don't need to try and claim referral business from the doctor in an attempt to offset my bill...unlike yourself.
3.   I received no discounts on our surrogacy package for saying nice things about Dr Shivani.  I think she is good at what she does, genuinely cares about her clients and I want to share that good news with others who are exploring options for building their family.
3.  Our surrogate was paid approximately $6,000 and this was all spelled out in the contract - how it was to be paid, at what stages of the pregnancy, etc. And, unlike you, we paid our surrogate.
4.  Yes, I care about whether or not our surrogate was paid.  I know she was paid because I was with her last week in person!  She provided us a signed affidavit stating she was satisfied and paid in full.  She took one whole day of her own time to accompany us to the MHA in an effort to expedite the boys' visas.  Does that sound like a surrogate who has been mistreated by her doctor?  Hardly.

Moving on.

We had a great visit with the SCI staff today and here are some photos as we bid farewell and final thank you to Dr Shivani and her wonderful staff.

Thank you again Dr Shivani for making our dreams come true.  We are forever grateful.  Much love from us and the boys always.

Dr Shivani (left) with Ajay and Shilpi (right) with Jag

Laxmi with Ajay