Well it was a Wednesday morning and Amanda and I were texting madly to each other. It was the day she was going in to have the dreaded c-section. The baby girl refused to cooperate and there was no other option. After quite a few hours of anxious waiting, I finally got a text from Amanda - the babies were here. She was texting back and forth to me and I said to another friend "there is no way she is going to remember all of this", and sure enough she hadn't. We had a good few laughs over the next few weeks in remembering the texts.
I went in that night to visit her. I couldn't believe she wanted me to come in - I didn't want to see anyone after my c-sections. She waited until we were alone in the room and she said "people asked me if I would find it hard to give up the babies, and I haven't felt it hard at all - is that normal". I knew she was still rather drugged out from all of medicines she was given, and reminded her that from day one she had made it clear in her mind that they were not her babies and biologically they were not hers. She seemed somewhat at ease, but that was the first time I had seen any concern from her regarding that.
I got to see the babies briefly as I was walking into Amanda's room. There was a busy procession of people heading into a room nearby. I recognised Rose and Tim from a photo Amanda had shown me. I had never met them as they lived in another state where surrogacy is not recognised.
As I sat and chatted to Amanda, it just seemed so bizarre that here she was recovering from a major operation and pretty much right next door was a brand new family relishing their new gifts of life that she had carried. It was a nice interruption when Rose popped in to check on her. The friendship and love that had blossomed between them was so evident in those few minutes I had to hold back the tears.
