Intended Parents Annie and Eric Share Their Surrogacy Journey

It’s time for a brand new season of our podcast, Hope Works! This season we’ll be hearing from Intended Parents who share their surrogacy journey, their baby’s birth story, and their relationship with their surrogate! In today’s episode, we are so excited to introduce you to two amazing Intended Parents, Annie and Eric. Press play below or on iTunes to hear Annie and Eric describe what it was like to meet their surrogate and her husband, how it felt to go through the pregnancy as a team, and why they can’t wait to tell their daughter about the day she was born.

“It’s real… and it’s going to happen.”

Annie and Eric came to surrogacy after battling kidney disease in the early years of their marriage. During that time, they focused on survival, and after a kidney transplant, they finally began to consider becoming parents. Surrogacy became the right option for them after meeting Mary early during their surrogacy journey. But it all became real after meeting their surrogate.

“It was just this humility that [our surrogate] exists, and that it’s real,” Annie shared. “It’s accessible to us, and it’s going to happen.” After that first meeting, Annie, Eric, and their surrogate were a team, working together to make a dream become a reality. And now, looking back, Annie can’t wait to tell her daughter her birth story, including the “strong, grace-filled woman who brought her into the world”.

 

Annie and Eric Share Life After the Episode

When we recorded this episode, the surrogate that carried Annie and Eric’s daughter was pregnant with Annie and Eric’s second child, a boy. Since then, their surrogate delivered their beautiful baby boy, and now Annie and Eric have a family of four. Our podcast host, Brent Love, caught up with Annie who shared what things are like for her family now.

Brent: When we recorded your episode there snow covered the ground. And more importantly, your surrogate was pregnant! So… how did it go? How is the family now?

Annie: We were expecting a spring baby, but instead welcomed our son three weeks early amid a late-season Minnesota blizzard!

Our son was carried by the same surrogate and delivered in the same hospital as our daughter. While we were in the hospital, I watched our daughter walk past the room where she was born, and I thought of how Eric and I had left this maternity ward a few years prior not knowing if we would ever be back. Leaving that maternity ward for a second time, with our family of four complete, was a gift.

Was the second surrogacy journey different?

Brent: What are some of the differences you noticed on the second journey with your surrogate? Was it easier? More difficult? And how is your relationship now?

Annie: The second journey was easier only because Eric and I changed our expectations. We knew to put on emotional armor. On this second journey, our first transfer didn’t take. It was our first experience with an unsuccessful transfer, and it knocked us off balance. But we remained reassured because we—with our surrogate and her spouse—were a team. We relied on the trust we had built and the open communication and grace we practiced with each other. Also—we had a toddler at home! It is hard to sweat the small stuff when you’re keeping a toddler alive.

How’s life with the new baby?

Brent: How’s the baby?! What’s it like being a family of four? Anything you didn’t expect? Surprising moments along the way?

Annie: It is pure joy. The baby is six months old and no one makes him smile more than his sister. He is enamored with her, and she is so proud. The cliché is true—time flies. We have been surprised by how fast it goes the second time around.

Advice for Intended Parents

Brent: Looking back over the two journeys, is surrogacy the experience you thought it would be? Any advice for moms and dads looking at surrogacy as an option for their family?

Annie: Becoming a parent through surrogacy means not having control. The good news? It’s great preparation for parenthood. Prepare yourself for delays and roadblocks. Rest and take care of yourself and your partner so that you can tackle each challenge together. It was like taking on a part-time project management job. There were a lot of emails, phone calls, appointments and follow up to keep the process moving forward.

And yet, it expanded my heart beyond what I had imagined possible. I thought my relationship with a surrogate would be transactional. Far from it. My children were brought into the world by a woman modeling for her own children, in her own home, the very things that I wish to cultivate in my children: generosity, vulnerability, strength, grace. That is the birth story I will tell my children over and over.

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Thank you, Annie and Eric, for sharing your incredible story!

If you’ve thought about helping a family like Annie and Eric’s as a surrogate or if you’re thinking about surrogacy as an option for you family, contact us! We’d love to talk to you about how Hope Works!

Thank you to Seedtrust who partnered with us to bring you this episode of Hope Works! Thank you Seedtrust! Whether you are an intended parent, gestational carrier, egg donor, or surrogacy agency, SeedTrust focuses on establishing trust, building personal relationships, and maintaining total transparency throughout the entire collaborative reproductive process. On time. Online. Worry-free. Find more about our friends at Seedtrust here  www.seedtrustescrow.com