The Beginning

My darling child,

You have yet to be conceived, but you have already made your Pappy and Daddy the happiest and proudest fathers on the face of the earth. There are so many wonderful and good people waiting patiently to meet you and we long for the day that God finally brings you home and completes our family.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how your Daddy and I will tell you the story of how you came to be. At first, I thought we'd read you this book about how two male penguins became the daddies of a little girl penguin to show you how families can be different. I wanted to show you that some families have a Mommy and a Daddy, some have only a Mommy *or* Daddy, some have two Mommies, and some families, ones like yours, have two Daddies. But that wasn't quite good enough. Your Story is much more unique than that.

So then I thought we would create your own personalized children's book. We would tell you about how your Daddy and I met and fell in love when we were just kids ourselves. We'd tell you about how we got married ten years later and immediately started dreaming of all the ways to bring you home. We would tell you that we decided to use surrogacy and then tell you about the two brave and beautiful women who we chose to be your Egg Donor and Gestational Surrogate. The last page would be the day you were born and it would conclude the same way every great story does - "And they lived happily ever after." I knew I was on the right track, but something still wasn't quite right. Your Story is much more special than that.

Tonight, as I was aimlessly scrolling through my Facebook feed, I noticed this article making its rounds. I saw that friends and strangers were disheartened by what happened in this one case and I was afraid that they might be inclined to believe that their dreams of starting a family may never come to fruition, especially if they remain a resident of the great state of Texas. The comments made me very sad and all I wanted to do was reach out to every last one of them and comfort them and tell them that it is absolutely possible and to not lose Faith. But how? How could I possibly reach out to all of the people who would read this article and think, "What if I never become a parent?"

And that's when it hit me. Your Story, the story of how you came to be, has the power to give someone the Faith they need to keep their dreams alive. Your Story is unique enough to show that love is what makes a family, no matter the state you live in or its current laws. Your Story is special enough to prove that conceiving via gestational surrogacy does not have to cost anywhere near the $100,000+ that the Internet claims it will (Lord knows if it had, it'd have taken me and Daddy MUCH, MUCH longer to get here!).

So, my darling child, this is Your Story. I hope that when we are through, you know just how badly you were wanted and will see the extraordinary lengths we've traveled to bring you home. I also hope that by sharing Your Story for all to see, you can inspire and help others achieve their "Happily Ever Afters."

We love you to the Moon and back,
Pappy and Daddy