Meet the parents, and friends and relatives (journey #5)

Wow, what an amazing weekend!

My IPs flew my husband and I to their hometown to meet IF, Big Brother, friends and relatives. We had already met IM and I was excited to see her again and meet the rest of the gang.

Lovely Rita (IM) picked us up from the airport with Hey Jude in the backseat. He kept saying hurry up Jill and John, let's go while we were still inside waiting for our luggage. He was a little shy at first with us though. 

Driving through their neighborhood was amazing. We saw some of the neatest houses. Their house was great too. I liked so many things about it inside and out. 

I finally got to meet Sgt. Pepper. He came down the stairs and straight to me. He even pushed aside a friend to hug me first. I believe at that point he told me they weren't going to let me leave, that I wasn't going anywhere.  And then he touched my belly. He jokingly said, I don't have to ask, right? And I said, nope!

:-)

I believe he then asked John, my husband if it was okay. Lol

They had some close friends over for dinner including the surrogacy counselor who helped facilitate things on their end and an awesome actor who had twins through surrogacy. (Not NPH)  Everyone was dressed up, so I went upstairs to put on my dress that I had brought "just in case".

Talking intently about something, must be surrogacy. Sgt. Pepper (IF) is to my right.

With the surrogacy counselor.

We ate Indian food which was a new experience for John and I. One of Lovely Rita's friends asked if she could feel my belly and I said of course. Everyone there was so nice and welcoming.

Cool fertility goddess IM had on their table.

After dinner and I believe after ice cream, we were chatting and baby was moving as Lovely Rita was talking, so I went to sit by her so she could feel baby move. It took a bit, but eventually she could feel her.

I brought the stork I had bought for IM. I originally was going to give it to her at Baby CeCe's birth, but I felt I should bring it now for her to put in baby's room. She loved it and eventually Hey Jude saw it and became interested in it. He ended up taking it to bed with him. 

Lovely Rita asked if I had seen my daughter Jessica's picture on the fridge. She had drawn her a stork when we mailed the ultrasound pictures to them. So sweet that it was on their fridge.

We stayed the first night in a hotel nearby. When we checked into the hotel right before bed, we had gifts waiting for us- a hoodie/jacket for me and a hat for John. I could actually use a jacket that fits right now and it fits great, plus it's cute!

Doesn't Lovely Rita have lovely handwriting?

We ate breakfast at a lovely bakery across the street from the hotel and then Lovely Rita picked us up and took us back to their house.

When Hey Jude woke up that morning he asked where we were. So sweet.

Back at their house, I got introduced to another awesome friend.

Lovely Rita and I

After awhile, we were headed out on a 3 hour drive to Lady Madonna's house (Lovely Rita's mom). It was great to talk and chat on the way.

We stopped to get pedicures and at that point I got to meet Lady Madonna. She took me to get a sandwich while Lovely Rita got started on her pedicure. Soon, it was my turn. I hadn't decided what color of polish I was going to do. When I saw the color Lovely Rita brought, I decided we should match. She said she'd be honored. I got to sit in a massage chair which was nice. My feet are sensitive and at some points, it tickled.

Then, we were off to Lady Madonna's house for dinner and to stay the night. What a beautiful house! We got to check out where we'd be sleeping. Lovely Rita told us we'd have some personal space in the basement with our own bedroom and bathroom. She didn't mention the theater room!
Oh my gosh! Their basement was amazing! It was pretty much everything I want to do to our basement, only on a much larger scale. 

Dinner was lovely and yummy and it was great chatting with more family. Lovely Rita's dad is awesome too. We'll call him Dr. Maxwell.

I have interacted with Lady Madonna since the beginning of our journey and already knew she was great. It was nice to finally meet her.

We also met Lovely Rita's brother whose birthday is just a day after mine. There are so many birthday coincidences (and other coincidences) between our families that I wouldn't be surprised if Baby shared a birthday with someone. She could easily share a birthday with my daughter, my twin uncles, my grandma or even Hey Jude.

We went for a ride in this awesome vehicle, the Jeepster.

Who can turn down ice cream? Then we rented a movie to watch in the theater room. John fell asleep early on and then I fell asleep and he woke up and finished the movie.

When I woke up on Sunday morning, Baby CeCe was moving and I just took some time to take it all in. I wanted to stay in the moment of it all.

Then we got up and went to brunch at Lovely Rita's aunts' house. We got to meet more family and eat more good food. John was loving the country atmosphere! Again, everyone was friendly and welcoming.

Lady Madonna is to Lovely Rita's right and then to her right is LR's brother. Dr. Maxwell is to the left on the front row. We have 2 aunties in the pic, one next to my husband, left top row, and one in the bottom middle. And then a cousin to the far left and nieces on the bottom row. You should know everybody else by now.

:-)

I absolutely love this picture!

My husband John with Hey Jude. 

Next stop, was back to Lady Madonna's for a quick break.

I got to sit down with Lovely Rita and have some belly time together. Sgt. Pepper joined us. They both got to feel baby move. So did Lady Madonna. I got to meet more family.

:-)

Finally, Hey Jude sat on my lap and cuddled with me and baby sister. Yay! I got lots of loving in. Him and dad talked to her and dad kissed her through my belly, but big brother wasn't too sure about that.

I love his smile here.

We needed to get going. Sgt. Pepper was staying behind with Hey Jude, so it was time to say goodbye to them. I got a hug from them both. I even got an extra hug from Sgt. Pepper as he got a little choked up and thanked me. I can't even begin to explain the love I have for this family and I got choked up later as I told John and our kids.

We were running out of time and needed to stop for a quick visit to Lovely Rita's grandma. I decided she needed a nickname too. Lady Madonna suggested Eleanor Rigby- perfect.

We needed to eat before heading to the airport. Since we don't have a sit down Pizza Hut in Utah anymore, we thought that would be pretty cool. 

An hour later we were at the airport. John didn't have a seat and needed to check in with an agent. Anxiety was setting in. We were running behind and might not get to sit together or even get on the plane. We checked in and they had put us in the same row, but not next to each other. Luckily, someone offered to switch. 

Our next flight home was delayed getting luggage on. Ugh!

And then somehow our luggage didn't make it to SLC.

It finally arrived the next night.

We had a blast! Such an awesome weekend. I am so grateful to be a part of this journey. I will treasure these memories forever!