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These dads have experienced two different surrogacy journeys (2020 and 2022), both using Spencer's sperm and Daniel's sister's eggs. Their advice to future dads is to do your research, specifically on the team that you choose to help you become fathers.

Family-Building Partners: Simple Surrogacy and Fertility Specialists of Texas.
 
Read their story. 

These dads have experienced two different open adoption journeys and are now the proud dads to two daughters. Theirs is a transracial family and they are in contact with the bio moms in addition to the extended family of our oldest (which includes her biological sister).

Tom and Elliott worked with Baby Step Adoption for their first journey, and Adoptions from the Heart for their second.

Read their story. 

Doug and Brent have two sons through open adoption, but experienced two very different adoption timelines. They were matched with their eldest son's birth mom when she was just 5 weeks pregnant and only connected with their youngest son's birth mom a few weeks before she gave birth.

Doug is an adoption advocate, and is the President of the Georgia chapter of Gift of Adoption. He and Brent worked with Adoption Information Services (AIS) to grow their family.

Alo, originally from Mexico, and Javi, born in Argentina, are proud dads to their daughter who was born through surrogacy in America in 2021. The family worked with Illume Fertility and Circle Surrogacy and live in Barcelona, Spain.

Read their story here. 

Colin and Patrick started their surrogacy journey in 2017 but ran into several hurdles including no viable embryos and a surrogate who backed out. After changing clinics, creating new embryos, and having a friend offer to be their surrogate, they became dads to son Chess in 2019.

The dads worked with Boca Fertility.

Read their story. 

Tarik and Jeff have two children via foster-adopt. Their daughter came to them at just 3 weeks of age through the foster system, and her adoption was finalized 18 months later. Their son joined their family in 2020 and his adoption was finalized in 2021.

Johnny and Sebastian are dads to two boys born in 2018 and 2020 with the help of Simple Surrogacy. During their first journey they worked with three different egg donors and two surrogates before getting pregnant.

Read their story here.

Michael and Seth have a 3.5-year-old daughter through surrogacy and are expecting their second daughter in September 2022, also via surrogacy.

They worked with Circle Surrogacy and Boston IVF, and Michael works in child development at Boston Children’s. 

Craig and his then-husband Joel worked with HRC-accredited Choice Network as their adoption agency. They matched with their daughter' birth mother when she was 14 weeks pregnant, and in 2017 daughter Izzy was born. They maintain an open adoption relationship with the birth family. The former couple share custody of Izzy and have a wonderful co-parenting relationship.

Read his story. 

Carlos and Patrick have been together for seven years and married for two. They started their journey to fatherhood in February of 2020 with Dr Mark Leondires of Illume Fertility (formerly RMACT) and Circle Surrogacy. Their daughter was born in November 2021.

After a long-term relationship ended, Roberto realized he still wanted to have what he'd envisioned for his future: fatherhood. Thanks to a phenomenal egg donor and an amazing surrogate, he was able to make his dream a reality with the arrival of his daughter Amina in 2019. 

Roberto worked with surrogacy agency A Woman's Gift in NJ, and Dr. Laura Meyer of Illume Fertility. 

Eric and Cliff became dads in April 2022 with the help of Same Love Surrogacy and SD Fertility. Their advice to dads-to-be is to speak to multiple agencies and to go with your gut feeling. And to always treat your surrogate with kindness, respect, and support. 

Steven is a single dad through fostering to adopt. He had three infants placed in his care, but sadly they did not stay long term. With the heartache that brought, Steven almost stopped his journey to fatherhood. But in 2018, his son was placed with him and he adopted him 17 months later.

Steven worked with Extraordinary Families.

Read his story here.

Matthew and Felix became dads in 2021. Matthew is a designer, and Felix is an OBGYN making him familiar with the egg retrieval and embryo creation process. The husbands only had one normal embryo for their transfer but took a leap of faith, and were successful, welcoming a daughter! They have started a sibling journey.

Matthew and Felix worked with Circle Surrogacy.

Julien, originally from France, is a single dad living in Brooklyn. Julien always knew he wanted to be a dad. After experiencing one failed embryo transfer, Julien decided to postpone his journey. Then the pandemic pushed his timeline even further. Thankfully Julien became pregnant on the second transfer and welcomed a daughter in February 2021.

Julien worked with Dr. Mark Leondires of Illume Fertility.

Jamie and Kenny have been a couple for nearly 30 years. Their personal circumstances — Americans living in the United Kingdom — made adoption extremely complicated. Surrogacy then became the preferred way of creating a family. The couple became dads to twins through international surrogacy in 2016.

James was single when he first fostered and then adopted his eldest son 6 years ago. Since then, he's met the love of his life and they're working together on building their family. They have a younger foster son whom they hope to adopt by fall 2022. 

James's sons were fostered from 8 months to over two years before their adoptions were (or will be) finalized.

Josh and Ryan are the fathers of two smart and funny girls through private infant domestic adoption. When they met with the girls' birth mother, they knew right away that there was a connection. After their oldest was born in 2017, 10 months later they learned that another baby was on the way and they were blessed to be asked to be the parents. They are a transracial family and continue to utilize the services offered by their wonderful agency, Vista Del Mar. 

Christopher and Patrick adopted their two children through the foster care system in Washington state. Their daughter was placed with them as an infant in 2003, and her adoption was finalized almost two years later. Their son was placed with them at 16 months in early 2007, and the finalization came later that year. Both children have contact with members of their respective birth families. 

The dads worked with family-building partner Amara, and you can read their story here.

Husbands Jeff and Thom spent the first 10 years of their relationship preparing to become dads. Jeff is adopted, and through his own very positive and healthy adoption experience—he is excited to provide the same love and comfort to a child that he received from his adopted family.

After completing their home study and retaining their lawyer, they were matched with a birth mom rather quickly. Nine weeks later, they were dads. 

Sean is the head volleyball coach at Texas State, and single dad to his son through open adoption. Sean worked with Choice Network to become a dad, and they helped nurture his relationship with his son's birth family. “I care about my son’s first parents and his biological siblings. Choice Network helped me establish a healthy relationship."