To Our Future Gestational Carrier:

Hi, my name is Cathryn, and along with my husband Tom, we hope to be your Intended Parents. We met in a poetry writing class in college and have been together for 15 years, living all across the country. We are both 36 years old and have called New York City our home for the last seven years.

While the city has innumerable options for fun—from excellent Thai food in Queens to the wonderful parks of Brooklyn and Manhattan—we are most at home snuggling with our sweet fluffy cat, Bertrand. Our day jobs are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Tom works in software product management at a start-up that helps people automate the boring and routine parts of their jobs. I freelance as a manuscript editor for non-fiction books and publications when I’m not reading or researching for my dissertation. Outside of work, we enjoy watching the latest true crime documentary and conducting our weekly ritual of rating dogs at the local dog run with coffee and pastries in hand. We have strong family ties in Virginia and visit there often for weeks at a time.

My journey to using a gestational carrier has been a long and painful one, but I survived through relentless advocacy and determination. At the age of 25, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation and chronic, intractable pain. I was forced to take an extended medical leave of absence from graduate school. After eight years of countless surgeries, numerous specialist consults, and a clinical trial, I found a combination of treatments that relieved my symptoms and allowed me to return to normal life. When we decided to start a family three years ago, my maternal fetal medicine specialist informed us that these treatments would prevent me from carrying a pregnancy because they would affect the normal development of a fetus’s heart. Knowing that one day I would need a gestational carrier, I went through IVF and froze FDA-screened embryos with Tom.

We were extremely lucky to end up with nine PGT-A tested, euploid embryos. Our goal is to eventually have two children through gestational surrogacy (single embryo transfers): one girl and one boy, but we will be happy with any healthy child.

We will make sure you feel comfortable and supported throughout the whole journey. I hope to build an organic relationship based on the level of contact and support that feels right for you. I’m totally up for weekly text updates or a standing FaceTime appointment, but I am also open to chatting more (and trading pet pictures) if we develop a friendship. I would also love to stay in touch after the birth. I am so grateful that there are amazing, altruistic women like you who are willing to help families like us. We can’t wait to meet you!

Yours truly,

Cathryn & Tom

 

Interested in these Intended Parents?

Complete our application today, make special note of their name and a Case Manager will contact you within 24 hours. Often sooner! Your application will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

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