‘She made our dreams come true.’: Surrogate turns hopeful gay dads into parents

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Creating A Family Together

“Growing up, both Frank and I never thought about getting married, let alone ever having a child. Frank and I met in 2007 and a year later I came out to my family. I moved up to Toronto, where shortly after he proposed to me to marry him.

I never pictured getting married, I never even imagined coming out of the closet. But all of those things happened.

If I ever thought I was going to have a child, I always worried their life would be awful. We got married in 2010. Right from the first night of meeting him he mentioned he wanted to have kids and a family. I didn’t make a big deal about it because secretly I wanted it, too.

We took parenting classes soon after we met, and he kept asking me when we are going to have a baby and I kept telling him I wasn’t ready.

I think I was scared of losing my freedom, hanging out with my friends, and not having to be responsible for taking care of someone else! Frank kept asking me when we will start the process, and I kept putting it off.

The day I signed my contract with my school board I said to him, ‘Ok, let’s do it. Let’s have a baby!’

Joyous gay couple taking selfie together
Courtesy of BJ Barone

Our Surrogacy Journey

We met with many women who would be potential surrogates, and one day, after many emails back and forth, we met with the most amazing woman named Kathy, who would become our surrogate.

We began the journey with Kathy and after one failed transfer we were finally pregnant! The nine months passed quickly (for us anyways!) and the day came for our son to be born.

In the delivery room, there was Frank and I, Kathy and her husband Kris, our midwife Heather, a doula and Lindsay (Kathy’s friend) who is a birth photographer. I remember seeing his tiny little head emerge and Heather, our midwife who helped Kathy bring our beautiful son into this world, say ‘Shirts off!!’ We both took our shirts off so quickly; the baby was placed on Frank’s chest and I wrapped my arms around both my husband and our son.

We were instantly overwhelmed with love and we began crying! Kathy made our dream come true. She gave us a family. She gave us hope there is good in this world. During Milo’s birth, we completely forgot Lindsay was even in the room snapping pictures of the birth.

We are so lucky she was there because we have such beautiful photographs to look back on.

Crying new dads holding their newborn son shirtless in hospital
Courtesy of Lindsay Foster Photography

The next day Lindsay sent us one of the photos she took and asked if she could post it on her social media for her photography business. The first time we saw the photo, we were probably still in shock from being new parents, it didn’t have the impact on us that it did one or two years later.

We were busy trying to learn how to change diapers and keep a baby alive, so we looked at it and thought ‘beautiful!’ and we put it away.

When we look at it now, we cry every time because it brings us back to that moment and that initial love you feel for meeting your child for the first time. It was one the most powerful moments of our lives. After the photo was posted, it soon went viral and we received so many wonderful messages of love and support, and of course some negative ones too.

Professional photo of new dads holding their newborn son via surrogacy
Courtesy of Lindsay Foster Photography

Looking Beyond Discrimination

Fast forward two years later, and we didn’t know our birth photo was being used in the way it was. My cousin in Italy had messaged me that there was a political group using it. I also received messages on Twitter saying politicians in Ireland were also using it.

We were taken aback by all of it, and we couldn’t understand how or why they were using our photo to support their propaganda campaign against same-sex marriage and surrogacy.

Looking into it a little bit more, we found out about their political agenda, so we took action against them. We wanted to fight them with kindness and show them same-sex partners can have kids, the makeup of one’s family doesn’t matter.

In response to their hateful campaign, we wrote a children’s book called ‘Milo’s Adventures; A Story about Love’ As educators ourselves, we know it is important that everyone should be reading stories about different kinds of families, no matter at what age, and there is no right or wrong way to love.

One would think we are coming closer to equal rights, but then on the other side of things, we are seeing more hate laws being passed and hate crimes all over the world. Every time I think we’re going forward, I feel like we are also going backward. I mean yes, laws in the States and in some European countries are changing and helping gay and lesbian people have more rights, there’s movement for sure, but there are also people working towards taking those rights away.

Luckily for us, we have not experienced any violence, and that’s still what makes us so lucky to live here in Toronto. We are thankful that we live here in Canada. We have all these rights and freedoms, and we make sure, on a daily basis, to use those rights and freedoms that we have. That being said we still have experienced homophobia here.

When the photo came out, we got lots of messages, but the ones that seemed to matter the most were always from former students. Students that were either struggling with their sexuality, or not.

The ones who messaged just to say, ‘thank you for being you.’ I got one recently that said, ‘thank you for just letting us know that gay people are normal, they get married and have kids.’ I told my husband years ago, that seeing it is so important. I didn’t have that growing up, and it’s happening more and more now. Kids might see a celebrity, but they don’t get to see the teacher that teaches them every day having kids, and it’s so key.

The positive messages we get from people make all this worthwhile. It reinforces that there are a lot of good people out there, and a lot of people are accepting. The positivity far outweighs the negative activity that’s out there. The many messages saying that ‘we hope to one day have a family like yours’ or ‘you’re an inspiration to us’ are the ways that we are able to help people who are struggling.

It’s also wonderful to see those people who have had a change of heart, who have now seen that it doesn’t matter what one’s family is made up of, as long as one’s happy. They could see all the emotion, and it’s all from this one picture. It’s quite incredible!

Milo was born in a time when a lot of people didn’t and still don’t understand our family, so they have to ask questions and wonder why or how it is possible for two men to have a baby. Hopefully in 20 years, the world will progress, and a lot of people will ask why it was such a big deal.

Families are made up differently, but they’re all created with love. I want him to always be proud to have been the kid who helped millions of people open their eyes to parenthood, and to gay parents.

There were a lot of revelations from that photo, and the positive side of its terrible use was from those people who said, ‘I didn’t like gay people before I saw your photo, and my mind changed.’ We didn’t know those people, but I am happy that they had a revelation based on that.”

Joyous gay dads wearing hats smiling in the pool next to their son
Courtesy of BJ Barone

This story was submitted to Love What Matters by BJ Barone and Frankie Nelson of Canada. You can follow their journey on Instagram. Join the Love What Matters family and subscribe to our newsletter

Read more stories like this here:

‘Would we click? I was about to meet the man whose child was about to be in my belly!’: Mom of 2 becomes surrogate for gay couple, ‘There are many ways to make a family’

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