Scenes From My Surrogacies: A Memoir in the Making

My kids had never seen an ultrasound before, and they were eager to get a glimpse of the twins. At home we’d joke about “the stowaways” – the term we’d given to the babies I was carrying that didn’t belong to us. When Doug or I would call them that, the kids would giggle like we were all in on one big secret.

Their giggles were worth gold to me. I’d always wanted them to feel part of the process, invested in the joy of creating families for others. They didn’t share my passion for pregnancy or childbirth of course, nor did I expect them to (they were still much too young to have an appreciation for what’s essentially a nine-month miracle and times two when you’re carrying twins). But this idea of being a family was central to my existence, and I worked toward that ideal with them every day. Even though they were still quite young, I wanted to be a living, breathing example to them that there were ways that each of us could be a miracle to one another, and my way was to create families for people.