Dear Prospective Surrogate,

Thank you for reading this letter to potentially begin this journey with us. Never would I have ever imagined this is how we would be extending our family, and you are an angel on earth for giving families the best gift possible. Thank you.

I’d love to share a bit about my amazing family of four. Myself- K, my husband of six years, C, our 2 year-old daughter, and our 1 year-old angel in heaven. I hope this letter can give you some glimpse into who we are.

C and I have been married for 6 years. Funny enough, we went to the rival colleges within 5 miles of one another in Cincinnati; me, attending Xavier University playing tennis (with my sister, 17 months older), and C, studying engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Our paths crossed a handful of times in college, as my tennis teammates and college friends were C’s best friends from his hometown in Columbus, Ohio. A couple years after college, we were both playing in our friend’s pancreatic cancer research tennis fundraiser at Ohio State (go Bucks!) and met at dinner at our friend’s house- under a tent in the backyard. A helpful nudge from me asking if he was ever going to ask me out, and three years later, we were married under a similar tent with our family and friends back in the hometown we created for ourselves in Cincinnati, Ohio.

My favorite thing in the world (and how I like to receive/give love) is by spending quality time with my family. You can mostly find us playing outside, chasing around our daughter in the park where we live. I love wine and margaritas, I love cheese and chocolate, and I love our Friday pizza nights. C is a civil engineer and has a side property business, which is great for me particularly fixing up our 1920s home and with my HGTV ideas. I also enjoy playing and attending any sports games, going to concerts, listening to music, and watching a great rom com. C is the patient and calming rock in our family to my fire/passion. He is steady, strong, and also a big teddy bear. You can find C taking his Saturday morning stroller runs in the neighborhood with our daughter, working out, listening to Audible books, or helping our family and friends. He has the biggest heart and the world deserves more C’s.

C and I are blessed to have our sweet little girl. She is truly the light of our lives and came into this world strong and fierce like her mama! A breech 9lb 3oz baby; she is loving, so smart, and kind. She loves her family and friends so much and gets excited when she sees her “friends!” and “cousins!” We know she will be the best big sister.

While we knew we wanted to extend our family, we were surprised to find out while our daughter was only 8 months old that I conceived our 2nd daughter. My pregnancy with our second daughter was much different than my first pregnancy; I had a subchorionic hemorrhage and bled everyday up until I delivered her. While the doctors at the time told me it would eventually subside, I was sent to the MFM group for my 20ish week anatomy scan. At this appointment, I was told that our baby had grown into my previous C-section scar from my first pregnancy; and it was considered Cesarean scar ectopic pregnancy. On top of this extremely rare condition, I had developed placenta percreta, where my placenta was growing outside my uterus and attaching itself to my nearby organs. I was immediately sent to the hospital and hooked up to IVs due to my uterus potentially rupturing, and me bleeding to death at any moment.

Within one day of learning this, I had to make the hardest decision in my life, knowing that my baby would not make it, and I would be lucky if I also made it out of surgery alive. On a Friday in September 2023, I underwent a life-saving gravid hysterectomy, delivering my perfect little girl, who was able to meet her dad and live on this earth for one hour, while I was fighting for mine. I know she is looking down over our family, and we know we will meet her again.

While the loss of my organs and our daughter hurts, I am here with my family and grateful for my team of doctors for saving my life and saving my ovaries. I love my family so much and am hopeful that we can extend it.

What I am looking for in this journey is to develop an organic relationship with one another. You will forever be imprinted on our child and our lives, and our child will be told of how they came into this world and the love between two families. I would like to attend major appointments (transfer, first scan, anatomy scan) but do not feel the need to attend or facetime them all. I loved being pregnant the first time around and know the joys of feeling those first flutters (or was it that pizza?!) and (pains) of those 3 rd trimester nighttime bathroom visits.

I hope this has given you a glimpse into who we are! The journey you are on is one of the most admirable that a person can take, and we hope that we can be part of that journey with you. This child will be joining our home full of laughter, love, resiliency, kindness, and the more than occasional crumbs leftover from our tater tot toddler. We can’t wait to meet you!  

With Love,

K + C