TV Spot
A couple of months back (two now) I was asked to be on a morning show (Great Day SA) for the Mother's Day show, showcasing surrogacy. Knowing I was to be on the show was the catalyst that finally got my surrogacy agency started. Since then I have had a lot of activity to the agency website and have a possible match pending with a couple looking for a surrogate.
Two days ago I was finally able to pick up that segment from KENS 5 and Terry posted it to his website:
iMuseAnyway, last month one of the magazines I write for asked me to interview the former host of the OTHER morning show here in town called San Antonio Living. She saw I was pregnant and yada yada yada, we talked business (she had started her own company) but she said it was a cool story and she would send my details on to the new host of SA Living.
Well, out of the blue yesterday afternoon at 2:30PM I got a call from the host. They wanted Terry and I on the show today at 10:00AM! And they focused on the agency aspect and less on my being pregnant.
God has opened so many doors for me. Back in April I had to interview the President of one of the largest hospitals in town. It happens to be where I delivered Jackson last year, and where I am delivering this little one next month. He had heard there was a surrogate who had delivered and as soon as he realised it was me, he gave me his cell phone number and told me to call him when I came to the maternity section because 'I want to know you're taken care of'. But the hospital has its own fertility doctors and he told me that he was going to tell all the doctors at their center to start referring my agency for couples needing a woman to carry their baby/babies.
I am humbled and truly thankful as I see how God is opening these doors for us. Most people have to fight to get advertising, but people are coming to me!
We arrived at the set bright and early this morning and found out that we were to be given 10 minutes, and that we were at the top of the show, right after Regis and Kelly. After our segment was complete, my phone was flooded with calls! I have couples looking for surrogates and I even received a call from a woman wanting to be a carrier.
Here is a link to the video (need to download it for my website!):
San Antonio Living
Labels: agency, KENS 5, San Antonio Living, Surrogate, Surrogate Angels of San Antonio, TV, WOAI
Special Mother's Day
Some Mother's Days stick in your memory like super glue. One year Terry and the kids bought me a diamond solitaire necklace. Last year we were driving home from a vacation from Disney World.
This year has far surpassed my expectations. Firstly, on Wednesday morning I was featured on
Great Day SA as they told our story of being a surrogate. That show was repeated this morning - Mother's Day.
Terry has booked a massage and facial for me at
Spa Jane. I will go and enjoy that on Thursday morning, and I am thoroughly looking forward to it.
But my biggest surprise came this morning as I made my way downstairs after getting ready for church. On the kitchen table was a smallish bag with a couple of cards. I read the cards and then took the gift paper off the bag. I was expecting something small like perfume, or perhaps a watch, but what I saw instead was this:
Warrick and Terry decided to split the cost of the phone and yesterday while they were out picking up Warrick's new bed, they stopped off at The Apple Store and bought me the one and only cell phone I have said I wanted! I am not really a gadget kind of person, I seldom use anything other than my iMac on a regular basis. But when the iPhone debuted last year, I said to Terry, "I want that phone!" It's the only time I have ever asked for a gadget! Terry was thrilled, thinking that maybe I was becoming a gadget geek like him.
So, welcome to my new phone - like any Mac product in this house, it has a name. I have named my phone Aidan, it means 'happiness' and was my first choice as a name for Warrick before I was persuaded to choose a different name. This is my first iPhone and therefore seemed appropriate.
This Mother's Day will certainly stick out in my mind!
Labels: cards, iPhone, kids, massage, Mother's Day, Terry, TV, Warrick
'Unplugged' Week
Last year we started a new 'tradition' in the Smelker household, but towards the end of the school year it went by the wayside, but is now back in force. Once a month, for 7 days the TV does not go on, video games and computer games are not played, and even Terry and I are only allowed on the computers to work.
The first three or four times we had these weeks Carson asked why they were being punished! We explained to all the kids that this was not a punishment. We wanted them to realise there is more to life than the electronic eye and the games that can be played on it.
And then we discovered something - even though there are 3 TV's in the house (although one is in our bedroom and the kids don't have access to it), the kids fought over who was watching what when; or fight over who won a game, or who 'cheated' (how can you cheat at a video game?) and I was constantly running interference between them. But the week the TV and everything else is off, there is peace in the home! So much for TV being the great 'electronic babysitter'! Now that doesn't mean I don't like TV - I appreciate some of the shows on TV, some of them are funny, and educational, however when the kids fight about which channel to watch all perks fly out of the window as far as I am concerned.
Right now the boys are playing on the piano and the girls are upstairs colouring, and drawing. Board games are out and being played and not one angry word has crossed a lip this morning.
Labels: games, TV
