Thanks Lotus, and Chromosomal Laboratories Rocks!

Today, after three nights with mom and dad since leaving the NICU, Emily is being released from the hospital. We are really looking forward to taking her to our hotel room. She has gained weight for the last three days and is up to 2.00 kg (4.4 lbs). This is still less than her birth weight of 2.065 kg. The doctors say she is doing really well and she has gone from drinking 30 ml (1 oz) every two hours to about 45 ml (1 1/2 oz). She even wakes up sometimes and demands more. We couldn't be happier. We are very grateful to the doctors and sisters (nurses) and everyone else at Lotus Children's Hospital, especially the NICU staff, who have taken such good care of Emily and her parents.

Amber's favorite time is when Emily finishes her bottle and she can just hold her against her chest. Sometimes it is hard to believe she is real. We are already madly in love with her. This morning we received the DNA report and there is 99.985% certainty that Brian is her biological father. We wouldn't have done the test if the US Consulate didn't absolutely require it and there is no way we would ever want to part with her if that wasn't the case. Once the hardcopy of that DNA test result arrives at the US Consulate in Hyderabad, we can finally be on our way to finishing the paperwork (the emergency passport, then the exit visa) and headed back home to Alaska!

We also want to add that if anyone from the US doing surrogacy needs to have a DNA test done we would highly recommend Chromosomal Laboratores in Pheonix, Arizona! And thanks to everyone who recommended them to us - now we know why firsthand. Marie, their DNA Case Manager/Immigration Specialist is fantastic with communication. If it wasn't for her help in rushing the results back to us, we would have to extend our stay in India at least an extra week. Even though the US Consulate received the completed DNA sample on Tuesday morning, they did not send it out until Wednesday evening. We suspect that while the consulate receives DHL shipments daily, they only send out DHL shipments two days a week. Either that or the shipment was delayed by the local (not national) Muslim holiday here in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Anyway, because the sample was sent out Wednesday evening in Hyderabad, it didn't reach Chromosomal Laboratories until Friday morning. We had paid extra for next business day rush of the DNA processing but technically the next business day would have been Monday. Since the US Consulate in Hyderabad requires a hard copy of the results before proceeding, the earliest we could have gotten our Emergency passport is Friday, November 26th, after Thanksgiving if we had to wait to have the results sent out on Monday (shipping transit time US-India is 4 days).

So, Marie and her supervisor made an exception for us and rushed the processing through on Friday, November 19th. We can't say how much we appreciate thier kindness in doing this - she saved us 4 days, probably more! This surrogacy process has so much paperwork and different agencies that we have to deal with that timing often becomes very close and the difference between sending out the hardcopy DNA results on a Friday where they can be in transit over the weekend versus a Monday will have a huge impact on our length of stay, our bottom line, our sanity, our family leave available that can be spent at home, and the happiness of grandparents who are longing to see Emily!