A gift

I didn't mention it up here, but I received a gift from my recipient family after the last cycle. The evening after the retrieval I got a call from the clinic saying that the family, who had come in later in the day had dropped off an REI gift card for me.

"There could be a gazillion dollars on there, for all I know," said the clinic employee who takes care of us donors (we'll call her Donor Mom).

This was kind of weird. Our clinic does have a money back policy, where recipients only pay if they get pregnant from my eggs, but there is still a non-refundable $9,500 donor cost for each cycle. And I get $5000 of that. So this family is shelling out $27,500 total, with almost $10,000 of it going to paying me and giving me the medications I need. But they thought, "Hey, I know we gave her $5K, but how about a gift card, too?!"

So they did. It turned out not to be for a gazillion dollars, but rather $50.


I was really touched by this present from my egg family. It made me feel like they were really appreciative of what I was doing, and that they knew it wasn't something I did just for the money. I think about the families all the time when I'm in the clinic. They go through so much, and I sometimes am just consumed with how much I'm hoping for them. I felt like this was a little sign that they know I care.

I used the card to buy a Swiss army knife and surfing watch on clearance.





I told Donor Mom I was glad the amount wasn't more. I would have felt tremendously guilty while my husband and I trekked around Thailand on our REI adventure vacation, decked out in high-tech waterproof gear as we awaited our REI sponsored climbing safari on Kiliminjaro.