About Whitney
I have a happy ending after a long and difficult infertility story. For 8 long years, my life was one disappointment after another intermingled with heartbreak and grief. We went through 7 IVF cycles, a few surgeries, and 5 miscarriages before we moved on to gestational surrogacy.
Surrogacy seemed crazy to me the first time it came up. Then, after researching the costs, it seemed impossible. Because of that, we put it off and didn’t seriously consider it. Later, I looked into it more only because a friend was considering carrying for us. We slowly figured out how to do it on our own, without an agency, and how to do it for much less.
I live in Virginia with my husband, our miracle twins and Kali, our weimaraner.
In addition to working full time, I stay involved with infertility and surrogacy advocacy work.
How we met our surrogate
One random day, I got a Facebook message from a woman named Nicole that said she had stumbled upon my blog and then my Facebook page. She said she was moved by my story and would be honored to help us. She included enough details that I knew she was serious. We were indeed very lucky, but this was the culmination of a very long and arduous process. This occurred after one and a half years of searching for a surrogate and after several surrogates fell through, dashing my hopes one after another.
We had been through the whole process with another woman, but she backed out the day before she was to begin medication — after going through the whole medical, legal and counseling process. We were devastated. Little did we know at the time, but this was a crucial and necessary step in our ultimate outcome. As we were going through the surrogacy process with her, I wrote a blog post detailing everything. This article is how Nicole found me! She googled “surrogacy in Virginia” and my blog post popped up. What if I had never written that article? What if I had not been through the failed process with the other woman?
I will be the first to admit that you have to have a little luck and a lot of faith to find a surrogate on your own. However, I also believe that you have to help make your own luck and that’s what I want to help you with.
About Surrogacy Hope, LLC
I created Surrogacy Hope, LLC and wrote the Complete Guide to Independent Surrogacy to share all of my firsthand knowledge with you in the hopes that more people can turn to surrogacy that previously thought it was unattainable.
Press
- NPR (via PRI), “Surrogacy Responses,” 7/6/2018
- Scary Mommy & The Mighty: ‘Personhood’ Bills May Restrict Access To IVF Treatments For Prospective Parents, May 2017
- New York Times: Infertility Group Battles Anti-Abortion Bills in Virginia and Other States
- Huffington Post: Disenfranchise a Gender? Virginians Fight Back Against Anti-Woman “Personhood” Legislation
- The Washington Times: Advocacy group fears broader implications of ‘personhood’
- Virginia Tech Magazine: Alumna sheds light on silent disease of infertility—and champions change, 2013-14