Lisa wants to have a child; it has been her dream since she was a little girl. Although she was diagnosed at a young age with polycystic ovarian syndrome, a hormone condition that can lead to infertility, she married young and believed then that she had enough time to seek fertility treatments to become pregnant. At thirty-six, after years of trying and failing to conceive, she decides the time had come to get aggressive with her treatments. She attempts fertility medications and various treatments, but to no avail. Her medical conditions would not allow her to become pregnant and carry a baby. Desperate, Lisa and her husband, Al, elect to try in vitro fertilization-only to discover that she has uterine cancer. She has a hysterectomy to save her life, but now having her own child suddenly becomes an impossible dream. Then, Lisa and Al learn about the possibility of using a surrogate mother. Lisa happens to catch a television show about a clinic in India that focused on IVF and surrogacy with success. Using this information, their quest for parenthood truly begins.

My Quest for a Child

By Lisa Dixit

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Lisa Dixit
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-8842-2

Chapter One

"My Childhood"

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When I was a young girl I always thought that I would grow up get married have a couple of children, live in a nice house with a white picket fence. I think that would be any girls dream. I grew up with both of my parents and at the age of five I lost my mother. She was thirty years old and had two beautiful children my brother and I. She was too young to die. My brother is three years older than me. My grandmother on my Dad's side ended up taking care of us. I cherish those moments with her. I remember my grandmother singing to me "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine" ... while rocking me to sleep. After a few years my grandmother passed away.

My Aunt Wendy and Uncle John then stepped in to take care of my brother and I. My Aunt would teach me things that my mother would have taught me, like manners at the dinner table, how to brush my teeth and even taught me how to braid. My Aunt and Uncle did not have children so I guess they had fun spending time with us and then going back to their wonderful marriage. I admired their relationship; they were so much in love, even till today they are madly in love.

A few years later my Dad remarried; she had two girls of her own and they had three girls together. So there are seven children in our family. My brother is the oldest, then me, then my two step sisters, and finally my three half sisters, so I have five younger sisters.

At first I got along with my step-mother but when I hit my teens, we did not get along at all.

Both of my parents are deaf, my step-mom as well. Being deaf you have a tendency to talk louder than hearing people and I would chuckle to myself when people would try to talk to my dad by talking really loud, I felt like telling them "He's not going to hear you no matter how loud you talk." I know they didn't know any better but I still found it comical. We had to grow up very fast. It was an adjustment we had to make as a family. My parents were very good at lip-reading so most of the time they would converse by lip-reading. I remember one time when my step-mom and I were arguing, I said a bad word under my breath, and I got caught because she had read my lips. I would have to be careful next time.

My brother was dating this girl who lived down the street from us, she was around my age. She would come over to hang out with my brother. She and I would talk about what was happening between my step-mom and I and she asked me if I wanted to stay the week-end with her just to get away from there to get a break.

My week-end stay at my brother's girlfriend's house turned into a permanent stay. I would now live with her and her family, her mom Linda and Dad and their other daughter.

My brother had also moved out of our house and moved in with his girlfriend's grandparents who lived right behind where I was living. He ended up going to college and became an Engineer. I finished High School and graduated. I missed growing up with my half-sisters and step-sisters.

I wanted to go to college but I didn't know what to study. I was interested in criminal law so I went to college and started to study criminal law. I guess I wasn't ready for college because I dropped out after only a short time. I do regret that

Chapter Two

"Love & Marriage"

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I was now twenty-years old and living in New York City. I was living with a roommate and decided to go to Cosmetology school and get my license, so that's what I did. My first job was working in a salon in Bergdorf Goodman as an assistant, I didn't like it there very much the people were way too snooty. I then decided to go to the Trump Tower "Pierre Michel Salon" and got a job there. I loved that job; it was a fun place to work because everyone was so cool to work with. I stayed there for almost three years.

The Trump Tower is where I met my prince charming, I was working in the salon and my husband-to-be had just moved from Bombay to NY and was working in the restaurant below me in the Trump Tower. When I met him I fell in love with his charming British accent. He was a chivalrous gentleman, very rare to find in New York City.

I felt something about him that I had never felt with anyone else. We started dating; actually we were very good friends and then became lovers. Our first date he took me to see the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center. Within one year we were married, I was 22 and he was 29.

We were actually married twice. The first time we got married it was a little rushed. My husband told his parents who lived in Bombay that he wanted to marry me. His mother consulted with a Pundit, who is like an astrologer about us getting married or not. The pundit would compare our astrology charts and luckily for me the Pundit said that we were very compatible for one another. I would be a "Rock" for him. The Pundit said we were to be married on a certain day, and that day happened to have been only a few days away. So we decided to get married at the courthouse and that is what we did.

A very funny thing happened that day. We had to bring a witness to the courthouse where the Judge was to marry us, so Al brought one of his friends. We walk into the Judge's chamber and right away she looks at me and says "I can't marry you." I asked why, and she replied "You must either wear pants or a skirt."

It was a hot day in June and I was wearing shorts and a black tee-shirt. Al was wearing khaki's and a matching black tee-shirt. My witness was wearing pants with a tee-shirt, so I was thinking what to do and decided to grab our witness and go in the bathroom and switch my shorts for pants. Thank God I fit into them. I came back to the Judge now wearing pants and she saw our friend wearing my shorts. We all thought that was pretty funny, even the Judge. I knew we had to be married on this day; I couldn't come back another day. The pundit said it had to be today.

I did want a traditional wedding with a dress and flowers and people celebrating, so we decided to get married again in September in my backyard.

My wedding day was perfect, it was a bright sunny day in September, and I was still working in the salon in the Trump Tower Salon so I didn't have to worry about my hair, make-up and nails, I had it all done there, they were nice enough to do all that for me. I got dressed into my wedding gown at the salon and was treated like a V.I.P.

My limousine was waiting downstairs for me in front of the Trump Tower. When I was walking out of the Trump Tower toward my limousine, I was in my wedding gown and I felt like a movie star because everyone on the street was staring at me. I had strangers taking pictures of me wondering who I was.

My mom Linda did a very gracious thing by arranging my wedding outside in her back yard. She had all the tables and food set around the pool. We had a DJ and photographer as well. There was a double deck outside the back of the house, and that is where I would walk down the isle, down the stairs. It was perfect, just perfect.

There was one major disaster at my wedding that nobody knew but me but we worked it out. My husband had picked up our wedding flowers, including my bouquet, before arriving at the house in his limo. After dropping my husband off, the limousine guy forgot to remove the flowers in the back and left. We tried to call...