The Richman (Book 2) - Confused

This morning Leah was more excited than yesterday because of the reconciliation that took place between her and her husband. Over the past week she has even browsed a lot of things about surrogacy mothers, and official agents that provide services for women who are willing to rent out their wombs by agreement, there are also other ways, namely choosing the right person, physically and mentally healthy to give birth to a baby by direct selection.

The option that is prohibited is precise if the surrogacy is carried out by close relatives of the baby's parents, it is because of the possibility of gene abnormalities such as in inbreeding.

And the option that Ben and Leah agreed on was gestational surrogacy instead of traditional surrogacy. Gestational surrogacy was chosen because the process is like a test tube baby which is then implanted in the surrogacy mother's womb.

In contrast to traditional surrogacy where sperm is injected and fertilization occurs between the father's sperm and the egg of the surrogated mother who is considered to be the biological mother.

While gestational surrogacy is the process of bringing together the egg from the mother and then bringing it together with the best sperm from the father and fertilization outside the uterus to form an embryo, after that the embryo is implanted in the uterus of the surrogated mother so that there is no gene involvement from the surrogacy mother. The biological parents of the born baby are the real parents.

Although the cost required for this process is not cheap, in addition to the cost of the IVF process, Ben and Leah also have to pay for health insurance for the surrogacy mother as well as the health costs, the daily living expenses of the surrogacy mother who supports their baby. Compensation according to the agreed value when the surrogacy mother has given birth to their baby.

"Morning ..." Greeted Leah with a bright smile this morning while she was making pancakes for breakfast and Ben came downstairs for his coffee this morning. It was Sunday and looked like a lazy day for Ben and Leah. They were even still wearing their own pajamas.

Ben sat at the bar and watched his wife cook. "You look excited today," Ben said after getting a cup of espresso from the coffee maker which his wife poured for him. Leah also arranged two pancakes drenched in maple syrup for her and prepared an omelet, avocado, and bacon for her husband.

"Today I'm going to meet someone," Leah said.

"Who?" Asked Ben.

"You remember the application we wrote when we came to the Parents Care agency?" Leah asked.

"Yeah that just happened two days ago, and I still remember," Ben replied while eating his breakfast.

"Today someone will come, she was sent by the agency to meet us," Leah said.

"Should we tell Daddy or Adrianna to come over?" Ben asked frantically, he was clearly not ready for this procedure even though he agreed to the surrogacy procedure on his wife's behalf.

"No dear, it's still very early stage." Leah smiled. "Last night I got an email from the agency, she offered some names." Leah pulled out her cell phone and directed an e-mail from the Agency to Ben.

"They sent four names, Loura McGael, Emily Suzan, Patricia Bean, and Shanon Clark." Leah handed the phone to Ben.

"Click the attachment and you can see their respective biodata."

"Who's your choice?" Ben put his wife's cell phone on the table, it was obvious that Ben didn't really care about his future surrogacy mother.

"Loura McGael." Leah replied, "She's twenty-nine years old, if we agree this will be his second surrogacy. He's done surrogacy for the Mc. Laurent family before." Leah explained, as if everything about themselves had been completely controlled by Leah.

Ben picked up the phone again and looked through their bios. "Why not choose Shanon?" Asked Ben.

"Sharon?" Leah's brows furrowed. "Why do you think we should choose Shanon?" Leah asked her husband.

"Simple, I'm just looking at their age. Of them, Shanon is the youngest, twenty-five. Maybe physically it will be better during pregnancy." said Ben.

Leah was silent for a moment, "Yeah, I didn't even consider it." Leah said.

Actually, there is nothing wrong with Shanon, all those chosen from the agency are those who have the possibility of an easy and good surrogacy process, but after looking at Shanon's profile, she graduated from university, still young and very beautiful, obviously Leah's ego who is a girl from an ordinary family with standard education and beauty which she thought was also not extraordinary was threatened by the presence of another woman who for nine months might be the center of attention in the family and she did not want Shanon to be that woman because of her physical beauty.

"If you're confused you can call everyone honey, sometimes people need to meet to get a connection between them, not just read biodata," Ben suggested and Leah nodded in agreement.

"I'll call them all then." In the end, Leah agreed with her husband's idea by remembering the important things they discussed last night, there was no longer any doubt in their hearts let alone doubting each partner if they wanted to start a surrogacy procedure, let alone involving other women in the household is not an easy thing to handle.

"I'll postpone the schedule tomorrow, . . . or um, maybe sooner the better." Leah herself looked furious at the moment.

Ben put down his cutlery "Hey . . . easy, don't be in a hurry. We're not being chased by anything honey. I don't want you to go through this whole process uncomfortably. Remember, you wanted it, don't let you change your mind halfway. So before starting anything, I hope you have thought things through very carefully." Ben squeezed Leah's hand gently and Leah gave a slight shudder.

"This is all making me nervous." Honestly.

"We haven't started any process yet, we can still retreat for now," Ben said assuring his wife that the decision had not caused any side effects so it was easy for them to back off.

Leah pulled her hand away and she seemed to be covering her face in frustration she covered her face and started crying.

"Hey . . . why are you crying?" Ben got up from his seat and turned the table to hug his wife.

"Take your time, don't be too hasty," Ben said while rubbing his wife's back.

Leah nodded, thinking in her heart that maybe she would come to a surrogacy group that she had come across when they started browsing. In the group, parents and surrogacy mothers can be together to share and support each other so that each of them can hold their own commitments for the sake of the baby they both hope to be born safely.

"I intend to come to the agency and see their group find out what surrogacy really looks like, I have no idea right now."

"You want me to accompany you?" Ben asked, he really wanted to show his full attention and support to his wife.

"Okay." Leah nodded, after wiping the traces of tears off her face. "Ten o'clock this morning," Leah said.

"We can get ready now if you want." Ben picked up his coffee cup and took a sip, then left the table while Leah cleaned up the rest of their breakfast this morning.

Ben went back into the room and into the bathroom. In the bathroom, he took off his clothes and wet himself under the shower. The problem of surrogacy is actually quite preoccupied in his mind. Between wanting and not wanting, while Leah really wanted it.