More specifics

I've had a lot of questions about what it is exactly I will be doing and what the requirements are.

Here is a list of requirements provided by the agency we are working with:

What are our requirements for gestational carriers?

• Are between the ages of 21-41 years of age
• Have given birth to a healthy child within the past 7 years
• Have had healthy births since any miscarriage
• Do not participate in government aid programs including TANF, food stamps or section 8 housing
• Have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of no higher than 30 (some clinics allow up to 34)
• Live in a surrogate-friendly state in the United States (we are very sorry but we can not accept gestational carriers who reside in Washington, Nebraska, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, or anywhere outside of the United States)
• Have the support of family and friends
• Do not use illegal drugs, smoke cigarettes, or abuse alcohol
• Are not currently taking anti-depressants (and must have ceased 6-12 months prior to applying)
• Are not currently using Depo Provera or any form of IUD (any IUD must be removed two menstural cycles before applying)
• Have not had more than three previous births by caesarean sections
• Generally have medical insurance (though this is not a requirement)

What exactly does being a gestational surrogate mean?
Gestational Surrogacy is the process by which a fertilized embryo is implanted in a gestational carrier's uterus, who will carry the resulting child/children to term, but bears no genetic relationship to them. The embryo is made up of either the Intended Parents egg and sperm or it can also made up of donor eggs and/or sperm or a combination of the two. The embryo transfer can either be fresh or frozen. In our case we will be doing a frozen transfer. Surrogacy can help married couples, single parents, same-sex couples, domestic and foreign couples and single individuals, and people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. It can be parents who are hoping to add to their families and others who are having a first child.
Surrogacy is more than a nine-month journey. It is an experience that we hope will positively affect our family for the rest of our lives.

I sometimes encounter people who openly assume that the money is our first reason for doing this. When you consider the variability of morning sickness, stretch marks, sleepless nights, swollen ankles, labor pains, and all of the other issues of pregnancy, the amount of money doesn't seem so large. In fact, if you figure from start to finish, the surrogacy takes ten months, 24 hours a day, at an average salary of $20,000—that works out to a compensation of about $2.74 per hour. No one would take that job!—unless they had a higher purpose for doing this.

I've also been asked numerous times how I could just hand over a baby and how it's possible for me to not have any attachment to the baby. Well, simply put, it's not my baby. Never has been and never will be.
This is J & L's baby from the get-go. I'm simply providing a place for it to grow and develop so that they can experience the joy that us as parents get to experience.