Indian transformation 70% complete

Well I've done it. After worrying about the limitations of my 10 year visa while in India, I decided to go a different route and looked into obtaining OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) or PIO (Person of Indian Origin) status. Oddly enough, I only qualify for the "Person of Indian Origin" status as the OCI does not make allowances for spouses.

The differences are not that much. PIO is only for 15 years while OCI is granted for a lifetime. The PIO also costs more ($365 vs $275) and overall has little less rights (such as I have to register if I plan on staying more than 180 days), but way more leeway than a normal visa. I can pretty much go and come as I please - that is the main reason I applied even with 6+ years left on my visa.  There is also talk of merging the two types and I'd rather pay more now than possibly lose out if they don't want to include spouses in the future. I could get lucky and shifted into lifetime status! (A girl can hope.) 

Gathering the paperwork and filling out the forms was pretty tedious. You need to make sure all your "t's" are crossed and "i's" are dotted. After gathering all of your paperwork, you need to make sure you have copies made of the right things (such as your drivers license or husband's documents), and that everything is in the right order. After quadruple checking everything, I was finally satisfied enough yesterday to hand it over to FedEx guy, even while giving him a slight Big Eye. I get edgy whenever my passport leaves my possession.

Hopefully by this time next month I will be able to tell people I am  officially a "Person of Indian Origin". As a blonde hair, blue eyed, fair-skinned girl, I can't wait to see the confusion among my friends here in the states. Even more so when I have to present it at travel points in India! I can hear it now, "wait... what?" Better bring along my visa just in case...

Eggs in a basket

For some reason our daily fruit package from our hotel in India always reminded me of a uterus. Don't judge, I have a great imagination and my thoughts were consumed with my lady parts already. You can even see where I pressed the cling wrap with my thumbs to try and get a better look and some tiny round fruit beneath the bananas whose name escapes me now. I'll call them the ovary fruit. (Thank goodness my Fallopian tubes don't look like that!)

With wandering thoughts today (and because it has been mentioned to me more than one at my precious age of 40), I looked up some egg donor info today. Not because I'm worried, just to prepare myself with some info should I need it.

Holy. Crap. 

According the American Pregnancy Association, the costs for just the egg donation is another 15-20K. If we do it here in the US, then costs for egg donation + surrogacy + all the other expenses that go with it run around 120K (and that's ONLY if the IVF cycle is successful!) If we do it in India, the costs are much less, but the complications are way more. If I want an egg with my ancestry, then it gets SUPER complicated. 

Do the process in the USA where it costs more and you chance a lower success rate by using frozen embryos or find an egg donor that is willing to travel to India (and probably go through a huge culture shock.) If we use an egg donor in India, then I have zero chances of having an egg donor with similar traits to me. In India we also run into the problem of my husband not being a US citizen and thus our child would not be. Getting the baby a visa with the HOPES that the US would approve me for adoption (and then citizenship for child) is a nightmare that might test me more than I am able to handle. (What happens if they say no after the fact???) Alternatively I can dash all hopes of any remote resemblance and we wait for the long process of US citizenship for my husband. 

Crap. 

Come on little embryo! You're the only prior egg left in my basket.