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Chapter 1: What is the significance of Darkness Into Light?
Welcome to the bonus episode of The Good Globe, brought to you with thanks to Boyne Valley Honey. Boyne Valley Honey is the official breakfast partner of Pieta's Darkness Into Light 2026, proudly supported by Electric Ireland. Why not take part in Darkness Into Light on May 9th at 4.15am at a location near you. This is such a powerful moment of connection and support.
I'll be there at the Phoenix Park. I can't wait to feel the collective energy of doing something so important and so special as communities come together to raise funds to support suicide and self-harm prevention. There's more info on darknessintolight.ie. I'll leave this link in the show notes.
And don't forget to pick up a promotional pack of Boyne Valley honey in stores nationwide with 25 cent going to Pieta. Because even if you can't make the event, you can still support such an important cause. So welcome to the bonus episode of my podcast with Amy White. We've been on such a similar journey with our surrogacy journeys and I waited six years to interview Amy.
It was such a powerful podcast from the moment her sister gave birth to her baby, sleeping on bunk beds in Australia waiting for Flo's birth. And then coming home with the Ukraine journey and Georgia, which is so special to our hearts too. And Jamie, it must have kind of brought you back as well, did it?
This was like, it was such a wave of nostalgia listening to Amy particularly talk about Georgia. But even when she was talking about her story with her sister and the struggle there, like obviously we went through a really long journey as well to get Tali. And you look, when you're in those moments going through the struggle, it seems hard, but kind of weirdly when you look back at it,
it kind of feels like nice or something. Maybe it's because you've achieved the goal and when you're in it, that seems more challenging. But, you know, even listening to her talking about going over to New Zealand and the sleep in the bunk bed thing, like I actually laughed out loud when she said they're sleeping in bunk beds. Yeah. Because You just do whatever it takes.
That was the feeling that I was getting that was coming back up for me. Like I remember when we were in it on our side being like, just do whatever it takes. It doesn't matter. We will do whatever it takes. And they did whatever it takes. And for her sister to give her that gift, like what an amazing gift.
thing to do for someone it's probably the best thing you could ever do for anyone if you think about it yeah um for her sister to be to have her own kids and then to to for for her to do that for reggie and amy is just phenomenal like what a what a woman and um what an amazing story
Yeah, so Katie's home from New Zealand for a couple of weeks, if not months. So I really want to go for a coffee with her and Amy and meet her. I think there's something so special about surrogate mothers. And I've never really...
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Chapter 2: How did Amy White's surrogacy journey impact her life?
She was incubated or what's the right term for that in Georgia. Like there's something in her that's gonna be Georgian.
Yeah. But like, you know, the way I've never actually spoken to you about this before, you know, the way Tali is so obsessed with Pia and being exactly like Pia and she wants everything for them to be the same. Do you think that she will be upset that her journey wasn't the same as Pia's?
No, because I don't know. Maybe she will, but I don't think so. Tali's so full of wonder and a bit more so, I think, than Pia. Wonder and she's so mischievous and curious. So I think she'll be more into it. I think that would upset Pia maybe more than it would upset Tali.
What do you mean by that?
Because Pia's so like, wants things a certain way. And if this is the way that she thinks it is and it doesn't work out, then she gets really upset. You know, the kind of way where Vitaly doesn't really care. Which is kind of Georgian, if you think about it.
And even their palates are different, you know, like Tal is definitely more into the food we would have eaten in Georgia, I find anyway. So it's going to be really interesting. And I love that Amy kind of brought up how much of a foodie place it is. So like if you're listening to this podcast and you love to travel and see the world, put Tbilisi on your list. It is. Blew me away.
I know we've spoken about this before, but I mean, what a city.
Well, someone I always look to for travel inspiration, right, is someone that we used to work with, Daniela Moyles. She is the only person that I know that chose to go to Georgia on holidays. And if Daniela's going there... it's got to be for a reason and it's got to be pretty good. So I know Daniela had a blog, a travel blog years ago that was really successful because she's so into travel.
So Daniela choose to go there on holidays, basically. It's got to be a good place to go.
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Chapter 3: What nostalgic memories does Georgia evoke for the hosts?
It's just, it's hard to get to, but it's well, well worth it. And like you said, the culture is The Amy noted the wine and the food culture there as well. It's not even that. It's just such a historic, beautiful place. And there's incredible nature. There's incredible scenery, incredible buildings. And the people are lovely as well.
Yeah, so amazing. What I thought was really interesting, I've been thinking about this over the last couple of weeks, and it's something Claire said to me, Claire Solon, on Soul Sisters when we came home from the Rome half marathon. So she stayed on in Rome. And when we got home, I don't know if you listened to this episode of Soul Sisters, but she was like, it's a hugely masculine city.
I do remember saying that yeah so she was getting the you know the gladiators vibe then in all the restaurants she was like those boys run that town you know they're all outside having the crack you know um been so charismatic to their customers at the tables. And then you have all of the priests and the monks and, you know, all of those guys who are doing their thing in Rome.
And so she was like, it's a hugely masculine city. And I was like, oh, whoa, I didn't pick up on that when I was there, but I feel that now on reflection. And then when I think of Tbilisi, I think it's a hugely feminine country.
Boy.
So number one, because the mother of Georgia, so their monument is this huge statue of this lady on top of a mountain and it literally towers over the whole city of Tbilisi. And in her hands, she's holding a glass of wine.
A bowl of wine.
A bowl of wine, sorry. A bowl of wine to welcome visitors and a sword in her other hand to...
Fanned off intruders, yeah.
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Chapter 4: What are the emotional aspects of returning to Tbilisi?
So I was like, there is nothing we can do in this moment other than go to Dundrum. And our surrogate mother was on the way to the hospital, to the clinic to get checked. And we went and you were probably right that we shouldn't have went. But I was determined to go because I was like, if I have to get on a flight tomorrow, I have nothing to bring. And so I have to do this. And we went down.
I remember standing in booths. I was like, this is not the way it was meant to be. And Pia, our little gorgeous Pia, who likes everything as we said to be perfect, was having a meltdown. And she's trying to keep us sane.
Chapter 5: How do surrogate mothers contribute to family building?
I didn't say goodbye to my friend. I know. And yeah, P is such a logistics person. So she'd be like, okay, and then what does this mean for this case? And where would we go? And where would we stay? And I just remember being like, oh my God, just put the formula into the basket. Let's get to the tail. And it was literally a case of taking each moment as it came.
Formula for a minute, right? How much formula did you buy?
I don't know why I didn't buy. So I had this amazing Zoom call with Jen Crawford, who is a doula. And she told me all about formula because it had been six years since I had Pia and I breastfed her at the start. So I didn't have a bog what I was doing and I couldn't remember anything about bottles. And so
I obviously, she would have probably told me to buy a box of formula, but for some insane reason, I was buying the little bottles of it.
To the liquids.
Yeah. And so we bought 10,000 bottles of that and put them in a little tiny wheelie suitcase that we were going to bring as our hand luggage for the flight. Yeah. And... As we were walking down the tunnel, so it was a false alarm with our surrogate mother. Everything was fine. She was fine. She had gotten home. She was in bed.
Yeah, we got a call to say, like, everything's okay. It's not labor and she's fine. And don't worry about coming. We think the doctor has said everything is fine.
I was in pennies at that point.
Yeah.
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