I spent eight years battling infertility and repeat pregnancy loss. Seven IVF cycles. A few bouts of OHSS, a few surgeries, five miscarriages. By the end of it I was tired, in debt, and just about out of hope.
Surrogacy was the path forward, but every agency I called quoted six figures. A hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more. After everything we'd already spent, that number didn't feel like a door. It felt like a wall.
So we did it on our own. We hired the experts we actually needed — the attorney, the clinic, the counselor — and skipped the agency markup in the middle. With a lot of patience and some hard work, I finally became a mom, thanks to my angel surrogate.
I wrote down everything I learned, in order, so the next person doesn't have to figure it out from scratch the way I did. It works. It worked for me.