“It was 6 months post my 4th open heart surgery. I was celebrating turning 26, a milestone my mother and doctors never thought I’d reach. That night, I met Ryan. ‘You don’t want to be interested in me. I have a lot of baggage.’ He replied, ‘What do you mean?’ ‘I’m probably going to die soon.’ Within 8 months, we were engaged. Not everyone approved of us looking for a surrogate, you know, because ‘I might die soon.’”
‘The magnitude of your child being born. No words. She did this for us, TWICE.’: Mother overcome with emotion watching surrogate deliver second daughter, ‘I gained a bond I never even knew existed’
‘I got with my boyfriend in July. By November, I was pregnant. We had been ‘irresponsible.’ We dealt with it. I convinced myself I’d killed my baby. I couldn’t look at my daughter without crying.’
“The thing is, I also got pregnant many years before at age 24. It was the first time I’d had unprotected sex, and I had split up with the father. Having a termination was my only option. This has hugely troubled me the past 3 years, but I’m not ashamed to talk about it.”
‘Let’s see if I can get THEM to smile.’ I texted my husband we were having TWINS! She said, ‘Not twins… triplets!’: After adoption, woman discovers she is pregnant with triplets
“We received an unexpected phone call. Our lives changed forever. Not only did we receive word that we would be able to adopt Dylan, but we were able to adopt Chase as well! Normal people had 9 months to prepare for a baby. We were given 2 hours.”
‘Worth the wait’: Photographer captures her grueling infertility struggle to let others know ‘they are not alone’
“Here’s the thing: infertility struggles are SO common, and yet NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT.”
‘This little baby was created in a tiny dish. She was a perfect product of us.’: After same-sex couple’s harrowing Reciprocal IVF journey, their advice is to ‘stay strong’
“I heard crying. I was walked over to see her and it was amazing. I can’t explain how it feels to see your daughter laying there. It was overwhelming. This little girl you had once seen as an embryo. Love makes a family. Love is something every person has in common. Love matters most.
‘I was worried I’d never become a mother, and that was something I know I was born to be.’
“I couldn’t understand what I had done so wrong in my life to prevent me from having something that should come to my body so naturally.”
