After getting married, Kevin and Nicole had their sights set on starting a family. They tried for a while without having any luck, though. They didn’t want to give up hope, so they began to seek out other options for starting their family. At this time, a friend offered to take on a huge task for the couple, one that would take a seriously unexpected turn…
Happily Married
Kevin and Nicole had been married for a few years and had been trying for quite a while to conceive. When it just wasn’t working out for them, they began to consider other options for starting a family because they knew it was what they wanted…
Family of Five
Kevin and Nicole’s close friends, Lianna and Shaun, had a big family. After five pregnancies, Lianna considered having more children. Little did she know, she would end up being pregnant much sooner than originally planned…
Turning to Surrogacy
At this point, Nicole and Kevin considered finding a surrogate. They weren’t sure how to navigate this uncharted territory, though, as they didn’t know anyone who had gone through surrogacy, and they were worried about finding the right person…
Lianna Said Yes
Lianna discussed the pregnancy issues with Nicole and Kevin, learning about the problems they had been encountering. When she saw the sadness in Nicole’s eyes, she knew what she was going to do…she would be their surrogate…
Checking In
Nicole and Kevin went to Dr. Richard Klein, their obstetrician, along with Lianna and Shaun. Dr. Klein thought having both couples there contributed so much love for the future baby. In July 2016, the embryos were planted. They all showed up to the doctor soon after to see if the embryos had taken…
The Follow-Up
The days leading up to the appointment were full of nerves. Lianna had done everything correctly and followed all the post-implantation instructions to the letter. Now, it was time to find out if the procedure had worked…
After 6 Years
It had been nearly six years since Nicole and Kevin were married. They were full of hope and excited about having a family of their own, unfortunately, it just wasn’t in the cards for them. Their plans had to be altered…
Health Issues
When Nicole was a teenager she noticed bumps appearing on her skin that slowly spread all over her body. At this point, she also developed serious fever, fatigue, and jaundice. Her blood test found that she had an extremely low level of platelets, too…
Autoimmune Disorder
Nicole’s doctors diagnosed her with an autoimmune disease called thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, or TTP. The disorder could be fatal, as it causes blood clots to form around the body. Had she not been treated immediately, things could have been much worse…
1/100,000
Blood clots caused by TTP, if not immediately treated, have a 95% mortality rate. The disease affects 1 out of 100,000 most of which are women. While this usually occurs later in adulthood, Nicole was part of the 10% that develop the disease earlier in life…
Tough Position
Luckily, Nicole was put on a daily prescription that managed her disease and prevented the clots. But, when she couldn’t get pregnant, her doctor’s told her the medication made it unsafe for her to have a child. But she also couldn’t go off the medication…
Telling Kevin
When she learned that pregnancy would be too risky, she was crushed. She arrived home and waited for her husband to fill him in on the news. She said, “The doctor doesn’t think we can have children…”
Too Risky
The thing that bothered her most was that she could conceive, but the pregnancy would be too high risk for both her and the baby. After talking it over with Kevin, they knew they would have to find another way to start their family…
The Frustrating Truth
It took Nicole a while to accept this truth as it was incredibly frustrating. She thought for a moment that she would risk everything and still try, but Kevin told her that wasn’t going to happen. She was grieving and needed time to cope…
The Options
After they had been trying unsuccessfully for all that time, they needed to consider what else they could do now. Nicole decided to freeze her eggs and began looking for a surrogate. This would be the safest option for them to have their own baby. But, they also considered adoption…
Adoption Option
Adoption was actually their first instinct because the most important thing to Nicole and Kevin was having a family, whether the children were biologically theirs didn’t matter. Unfortunately, adoption is incredibly expensive and it was outside of their budget…
Legal Fees
While lots of children out there need loving homes, the adoption system is extremely expensive for couples primarily because of the legal fees. In 2015 and 2016 international adoptions cost an average of $42,000, and adoptions for domestic newborns averaged $37,000. This was more than their bank accounts could handle…
Surrogacy
While adoption was too expensive, they began to look into surrogacy. But as it turns out, surrogacy was even more expensive than adoption and averaged around $75,000. Nicole tried to figure out a way to still make it work. She had heard stories of sisters and mothers carrying children, but she didn’t have a sister, and her mother was too old now…
New York Laws
New York law stated that it was illegal to pay someone to act as a surrogate in the state. If they were going to make this work, they needed to pay someone out of state to carry the baby. But this was problematic in that it would be difficult to travel back and forth to doctor’s appointments and they wanted to be close with the surrogate and be there for every step…
Going with Surrogacy
Kevin and Nicole were pretty set on surrogacy, though, so they had to figure out a way to make it happen. The baby would be biologically theirs and they ideally, could be involved in the whole pregnancy if they found the right surrogate…
Helpful Friends
When they finally put it out there to their friends and family, many friends stepped forward to help, and they were thrilled. Maybe this would happen for them. They had a few friends tested to see if they could carry their embryo, but unfortunately, they weren’t fit to carry…
Helping Out
When Lianna heard about Nicole and Kevin’s struggle with conceiving, she was inclined to help. She wasn’t sure if she could, though, because she had just given birth to her fifth child and didn’t know if her body was ready to carry another baby so soon after…
Super Healthy
There were lots of qualifications for a surrogate that Nicole and Kevin didn’t know about prior to going through this process. The surrogate had to be in top health, but once the surrogate was selected, it takes within three tries of planting the embryo for her to get pregnant…
Double Date
In December of 2015, the two couples met for dinner. Lianna and Shawn knew that Kevin and Nicole were under a lot of stress and wanted to lift their spirits. They began to talk about children, and Lianna, seeing how upset Nicole was, wanted to help…
More Children
At dinner, Lianna said, “You know I have five children, Shawn and I want to have maybe one or two more.” Nicole and Kevin were shocked. Lianna and Kevin already had five!
The Greatest Offer
They were thrown off by their friends comments—it felt like they were throwing it in their faces. Lianna continued, “No, not for me, for you guys- I’d like to carry a child.” They all just started crying in that moment. It was the answer to their problems, finally…
Sharing the Joy
Lianna felt that it was just the right thing to do. She said, “I was blessed to have five kids, and they are all amazing, and I couldn’t picture my life without them. And to see this family so deserving, it broke my heart.” Lianna knew firsthand how amazing it was to be a mother and she wanted to share that joy with her friend…
A Big Decision
After giving birth to her fifth child, Lianna and Shawn knew their family was complete but she still had more love to give. She considered becoming a surrogate to help a family in need, but Shawn needed to be involved and he agreed with her idea and knew her heart was in the right place…
A Dream Come True
Nicole and Kevin immediately accepted Lianna’s offer. This was a dream come true. After she passed the medical tests, they knew the time was right to move forward with the embryo implantation…
Try #1
Lianna had her first implantation and it would be a week before they knew if the embryo had taken. This week felt like eternity for the couples. When they all went to the follow up appointment, they learned that Lianna wasn’t pregnant…
Round 2
Although the first try didn’t work, their doctor was optimistic. This time their doctor was going to plant more embryo to increase their chances of getting pregnant. Once the second round was implanted, they began the week-long waiting game again…
Successful
Once again, both couples went for the follow-up appointment. This time, there was good news. Lianna was pregnant! On top of that, though, Kevin and Nicole were about to be parents to not one, but two babies. Lianna was pregnant with twins!
The Good News
Labor Day weekend was coming up and Nicole and Kevin decided to share the news with their friends and family at a party they were having. They stood in front of everyone and told the crowd they had something to share…
February 10th
On February 10th, 2017, Lianna gave birth to the twins, a boy and a girl. Kevin and Nicole were overjoyed. They named them Luciana and Dominic. They cried tears of joy. “It’s probably the most amazing thing,” Kevin said, “because you think it’s the end of the road, now here we are with two beautiful children.”
Godparents
Lianna and Shawn became the twins’ godparents. They had a special connection for life over the babies and they wanted to make it official. Nicole said, “I don’t have a sister, but I’d consider her like that. We don’t hold back, we are open, honest, and I am constantly turning to her for guidance.”
Advocating for Surrogacy
Nicole and Kevin were inspired after their experience to advocate for surrogacy to become legal in New York State. They began working with legislators in their state to change the laws. Kevin said, “We are happy that our story went public to help others in the time of need.”
Continuing the Work
Nicole and Kevin wanted to use their experience to shed light on surrogacy and their issues getting pregnant. “There are people out there, like Lianna, that will do it out of kindness. It’s easier to find them than it seems. It’s never the end of the road.” Today, the couple continues to fight to legalize surrogacy.