The road to becoming parents isn’t always smooth; you may hit unexpected detours and bumps along the way. For some it may feel like you are just stuck in the same, waiting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. When Carolee crossed paths with a couple who faced those challenges she offered to help through surrogacy. For her, the journey has been worth every minute.

I’ve always been fascinated with surrogacy and from a very young age knew I would be part of this rewarding experience.

After I was finished having my own children, I began to move forward with my research.

I joined an online message board and began connecting with the surrogacy community.

Through this resource I met many great people including a couple whom over the next year became great friends with.

I supported them in their journey to become parents, and was heartbroken when they suffered difficulties.

The couple was in the process of looking for another surrogate and I was going to meet with other Intended Parents.

However; you never know what the future will bring and our different paths brought us together for a reason, I was meant to become a surrogate for this wonderful couple.

I traveled to San Diego, where the intended parents lived, for some testing and then we moved forward with the IVF transfer.

Our transfer day marked such an important day for all of us, it was a day of hope.

We all wanted it to work very much… and it did! I got a positive pregnancy test, on Christmas day, and called right away with the results.

It was the perfect day for such a special gift, tears welled in our eyes and happiness filled our hearts.

The day I went into labor we all headed to the hospital and were anxious to image welcome a new baby to the world.

I gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby girl and they named her Austin.

My husband was able to be a part of Austin’s delivery and got to carry her out and finally hand her to her parents.

I had a friend there to take pictures of this, so I could see the joy on their faces. Those pictures mean the world to me.

They are the images that best describe why I wanted to be a surrogate.

I have loved getting to watch her grow and see the love that her family has for her. I could not have dreamed of a better journey.