Joey and I met through familiar friends. At first, I did not give any attention to him as I was enjoying my life being single and my career. But he is tenacious and eventually convinced me to date him. Our relationship is rooted in mutual respect, understanding, and a deep commitment to supporting each other.
When I met Joey, he already had two sons from his late wife, who are such great big brothers to our daughter. His eldest son lives near us, so we see them a lot together with grandkids.
Kim:
My grandparents raised me because I lost my mom due to cancer and my dad due to uniform service. I was born in Spain but grew up in the province of Eastern Samar. I was raised to center my life on our family and the value of family support. Respect towards elders and be grateful for the little blessing we receive daily in life. My grandparents were retired teachers; they instilled in me the value of hard work and integrity.
Joey:
He was raised in the province of Cagayan de Oro by his father, the provincial doctor, and his stepmother, a teacher. He comes from a big family, having six brothers and two sisters. At a young age, his father trained them to work hard in everything they did. And have compassion towards others.
Our firstborn was conceived when I was 25 years old, and it had come as a surprise because I was diagnosed with PCOS. After that, we could hardly get pregnant. Five years ago, we decided to start to see a fertility doctor and did all the blood work tests from the reproductive immunologist to the reproductive test. Diagnose with having Cat 1 under reproductive immuno Category 1: HLA (human leukocyte antigen) compatibility — the couple’s tissues are too similar genetically. So, we did treatments before proceeding with our second harvest.
We tried IUI, which turned into a chemical pregnancy, so we decided to do IVF. We did a PGS test for the first harvest and got one viable out of 8 embryos test, but no success after transfer. We tried again 2nd IVF harvest and got six good embryos. With every attempt, we cried and asked more questions until our last embryo that was transferred put a smile on all of us. We thought, finally, but on our 12th week of check, our doctor told us that there was no more heartbeat and the baby stopped growing at eleven weeks.
Having PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and a reproductive immune problem that attacks the baby makes it hard to go on to full-term, so we are seeking a surrogate’s help.
We plan to raise our child close to family. We live in a gated community and are very warm and friendly. Our daughter loves it here, and it is very safe for children to be children. Our home is also near schools and hospitals.
My husband and his friends have built a rehabilitation center as an advocacy to help people with addiction and behavioral disorders. It has become our family tradition to be involved in this advocacy to help families rebuild and maintain sobriety.
All of us are certified divers, and when we get a chance, we dive as a family to explore the beauty of our God-given gift to us. It is also our way to bond with each other. We also love to travel as a couple, with family, or with friends. We have four dogs in our house who love children.
Our daughter loves music and is a good painting artist and an animal advocate.
Of course, we will cover all costs and expenses of our surrogate – that goes without saying. We are also there for her virtually around the clock! We want to be very involved with appointments or anything we can help with.
We are so grateful to be considered as you complete our dream of being parents. It will be our privilege if our surrogate accepts also our friendship because we would love to stay connected. We are extremely grateful to our surrogate for giving us a chance to build our family and would consider her part of our own family. We hope she will feel that way too but if not it is ok. We respect the boundaries and decisions of our surrogate.