(Not so) quiet times

Update on North and West. Things were really kickin with North but finally got an email that said they needed to step back and take some time to make their decision. It's been several days since then, so I get the impression it was "goodbye". (Truly the hardest part of the matching is all the damn rejection without knowing what it was, if anything, that turned them off. Sigh)

West was also fantastic and a few days ago, I was worried I'd have two wonderful sets of IPs and would have to choose. Soooo, I did receive a great email back from West late last week and it took me until Tuesday to reply. Everything was fantastic except it sent me a red flag wrt money. They had only $x to offer as a comp. It wasn't significantly less, but unfortunately, comp isn't the only financial part of this journey and it worried me immediately that trouble would be on the horizon. (Taking a step back to say that I don't know these people (IPs) from Adam and have nothing to base any judgement on except my intuition. If my intuition is wrong, so be it and I'm hypersensitive... but it IS the only thing I have to go on this early). As mentioned in a previous post, besides my compensation for doing a surrogacy (typical range is $15-22K), there's also the costs associated with the IVF, misc fees, travel reimbursement, hospital and doctor fees, any bills that the insurance wouldn't cover and in a worse case scenario (6 months of bedrest for a complicated pregnancy), 40% of my income not covered by short term disability. I emailed her back and told her that I could accept the lower comp and expressed as honestly as I could my fears (stated above). I haven't heard back from her either.

I replied to other ads searching for a GS and most haven't replied back. One was an (local!)agency that was working on behalf of several NCers. I printed out their 19 page application and need to fax it back in. Not holding my breath that it's the answer to my prayers, but I'm moving forward and having local IPs is something I'd REALLY like.

The whole search is depressing with the constant let down and rejection. I know it's all just priming for the long road ahead but I do hope to find my couple soon. I don't see how people can actively search for months and years.