My story doesn’t start with a bang. There was no bright flash of clarity where I knew surrogacy was my calling. It was more gradual, a steady certainty that I would leave behind a bigger legacy than my own family. The first time I heard about surrogacy was in my early twenties when my hair stylist at the time was pregnant with triplets. I thought it was such a beautiful thing she was doing and kept it in the back of mind like, ‘yeah, someday I could do that.’ A few years later in 2009, I began my career at CandyCrate.com, a retro candy store. I started as a customer service representative and quickly took over social media and then most of the marketing. When I was pregnant with my son in 2012, my boss, Randi (yes, the same one who is our Program Manager now), was also pregnant with her second surrogacy journey. I recall telling my husband that I wanted to be a surrogate too. He was on the fence at first but literally in the hospital after my son was born he looked at me and confidently said, “you were made to do this. You could totally be a surrogate!” I planned to look into it once I stopped nursing my son, because he was to be an only child. But you know what they say? Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans! In 2015 my daughter was born. My family was now complete and I knew that I would pursue my first journey.
I met with Carol at my home in 2016 and the connection was instant. When I had my match meeting with my potential couple a few months later, that feeling of ‘love at first sight’ was there again. I am someone who feels strongly about timing, everything in my life has happened the way it’s supposed to, on the right timeline. When something isn’t meant for me, it’s difficult. With my surrogacy journey, everything was seamless and in April 2018, my couple became parents! That wasn’t the end of our surrogacy journey though, in February 2021 I helped to complete their family when their second child was born.
Much like my path to surrogacy, my career at BFI was gradual. Having already worked for Randi for almost a decade, it was a pretty easy transition to the Building Families team. It started with me helping out here and there with content creation or offering ideas. In 2019 when CandyCrate.com closed their chocolate doors for the last time, I devoted my time completely to Building Families. It’s a different beast to promote a Surrogacy Program online. There’s no ‘product,’ or ‘hook,’ to it. It’s emotional and about connection. I still get misty writing every birth story and posting about every new match. When I say every journey is magical, I’m not exaggerating. Being a surrogate myself was a very humbling experience, but being able to be a small part of so many journeys every year…that’s a dream come true!