For many couples, deciding to be become parents is born out of the love and stability that is built from their family’s relationship. Texas couple, Ed and Anthony experienced this first hand. After getting married, they found a strong sense of stability from their happy and loving relationship that neither had ever felt before. This new feeling also allowed the couple to think of other aspects they had never contemplated prior to being together, specifically, parenthood.
As Ed and Anthony tell it, their surrogacy journey consisted of a series of fortunate coincidences. Although they had legally been married in California, their marriage had not yet been recognized in the couple’s home state. Because of this, Ed and Anthony worked with a local attorney to help set up the necessary legal framework to obtain the rights such as Power of Attorney and inheritance rights. The firm Ed and Anthony selected specialized in setting up these rights as well as same sex family issues, including adoption and gestational carrier issues.
Initially, the idea of adoption appealed to both Ed and Anthony; however, the long time frame required to finalize an adoption did not sit well with the couple. At ages 52 and 40 respectively, Ed and Anthony both felt their parental clocks ticking and worried their window of opportunity was quickly closing.
After conducting thorough and extensive amounts of research, the couple reached the conclusion that gestational surrogacy would be the right path for them to take. It was there in the firm’s waiting room that Ed and Anthony came across the business card for Surrogate Solutions.
Ed and Anthony contacted Surrogate Solutions to request preliminary literature and have a brief conversation with Gayle. Once the couple was ready to begin their journey, Gayle jumped right in and was ready to help. According to Ed and Anthony,
“Gayle was an angel of hope and comfort for us throughout the entire experience. While we live in the fourth largest city in the country, we were surprised that there weren’t many same sex couples with backgrounds similar to ours. [Gayle] assisted us in our quest to find a fertility clinic that we would not only feel at ease in working with, but also in finding one that was willing to work with a same sex couple.”
Although it did not feel like it at the time, Ed and Anthony both agreed that their search for a gestational carrier was very trouble-free. The couple had heard many horror stories about bad surrogate interviews and mismatches which painfully resembled bad blind dates. Fortunately, they experienced none of this due to Gayle’s thorough screenings and understanding of the couple’s needs.
A week or two after beginning their search, Gayle called Ed and Anthony to share the good news that she had found a surrogate she believed would be a great match. Gayle, Ed, and Anthony planned a lunch to meet their prospective surrogate Vickie.
After hours of sharing stories about their families, backgrounds, upbringing, and life in general, Ed and Anthony asked Vickie why she wanted to carry someone else’s child. Throughout their discussion, the couple learned that while this would be Vickie’s first time as a gestational carrier, she was already a six-time egg donor and very familiar with the IVF process. Vickie also shared her dream of finishing nursing school and eventually working with a fertility clinic so she could continue helping couples realize their dreams of having a family. Although Ed and Anthony had not met with any other surrogate candidates, they both felt an instant connection with Vickie and knew they had met the surrogate they were meant to work with.
With Vickie’s help, Ed and Anthony are today the proud parents of a happy, healthy, and beautiful little girl. As Ed and Anthony describe it,
“While we realize that our road to parenthood was a bit unconventional, we’re confident we don’t feel different than any other parents. We are thrilled but humbled to have been given the blessing to care, love, and nurture this precious human life.”
Just like many couples becoming parents through gestational surrogacy, Ed and Anthony’s journey wasn’t without challenges. However, with the guidance of Gayle and Surrogate Solutions, they were able to make their dreams of having a family together come true. To learn more about the challenges Ed and Anthony faced and how they overcame them, we invite you to read our next post where we highlight several challenges they faced and how they overcame them.
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