My husband, Ryan, and I are both members of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Ryan has served for 16 years and is a Maritime Helicopter Pilot. I have served for 10 years and am a qualified Helicopter Avionic Systems Technician. We first crossed paths during a Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) recruitment video shoot, that we were both cast in, but never ended up seeing each other much during the rest of our time in Halifax. Coincidentally, we were both posted from Halifax, NS, to Victoria, BC in 2018. While at our new Squadron in Victoria, 443 Sqn, we ran into each other again when I was marshalling a helicopter that he happened to be flying. At the time, I was one of three marshallers that oversaw start ups and shutdowns of the helicopters, and he was one of three pilots that were always flying them. Ryan was tasked to be in charge of coordinating and executing the Girls Fly Too Airshow in Abbotsford, BC and I happened to be one of the technicians that was assigned to that event. We got to know each other a lot better during those first few days and as they say, “the rest is history!” We got married in May 2022 and deployed together June 2022 for 6 months to the South China Sea with the Royal Canadian Navy.

Ryan was raised by a wonderful single mother and her family in South Western Ontario. Some of his family remains in the Toronto area, but Ryan’s Mother and Aunt both moved to Victoria to be closer to us this past spring (May 2024). The primary reason was to re-establish a relationship and to be a part of our future children’s lives. They are so excited to have grand children one day and are both amazing strong women that would be a great influence on them.

I grew up in small town Saskatchewan, and the majority of my family remains there today. My Father was also a single parent and raised my older sister and I for 10 years, until my step-mom came into the picture to complete our family. Our chosen family is extensive here in Victoria – we have a wonderful community of friends.

After returning home from deployment we wanted to continue with our life’s plan and start a family. We got pregnant right away to our surprise, but sadly ended in a miscarriage at 8 weeks. We continued trying to conceive for the following 9 months with no success. In December 2023, I was having severe stomach pains and ended up in the emergency room and was diagnosed with an Abdominal Hematoma (internal bleeding) that the doctor believed should resolve on its own. After multiple visits with my doctor and no improvement to the stomach pains, a CT scan was ordered to further diagnose the issue. A few months later in May 2024, at the same time I was dealing with the Abdominal Hematoma, we visited a fertility doctor to determine why we were having trouble conceiving. The fertility doctor had both Ryan and I go for additional fertility testing to figure out the issue. We completed all the testing and there were no apparent reasons for the infertility. After the abundance of testing and scans that were completed, one of the doctors noticed the mass in my abdomen was not a hematoma, but in fact a very rare type of cancer. To be more specific a Desmoid Tumour, which is a type of benign cancer that is locally aggressive and had been growing for years. Although non-life threatening, this type of cancer is very stubborn disease that includes a long and intrusive treatment. These types of tumours are often linked to increased estrogen levels, which will make all future pregnancies high risk even after the tumor has been treated. We promptly underwent an egg retrieval, and have 5 healthy embryos frozen at PCRM Vancouver, all mid to high quality.

We live in a quiet neighborhood on a cul-de-sac in James Bay, where we have gotten to know and befriended all of our neighbours. We are close to schools, parks, the community centre and a few blocks from the ocean with beautiful views of the mountains. We are homeowners and rent the other half of our house to a lovely couple with two young children of their own.

We are both avid sports fans. We play slo-pitch softball together during the summers, and during the colder months it’s all about football (Ryan) and volleyball (Kyra). I am currently coaching my ladies’ military team which has been a new and exciting challenge. Our days are also filled with taking care of our 4 year old golden doodle, Arrow, who is great with kids! She has been around kids from 4 months to 6 years old and is always very gentle and docile with them. Ryan is an amazing cook who loves to spend his time in the kitchen, and I love to bake. We do our best to enjoy life as much as we can, spending our long weekends at cottages or going on outdoor adventures with friends. We are ever hopeful to have children of our own and bring them into our already full and loving life.

We are a very organized couple and have no problem arranging appointments, finances, and travel. Other than covering all the associated costs of a pregnancy, we hope to be available to offer as much support as we can throughout the entire journey. We really want this experience to be enjoyable for both us and the surrogate.

Neither of us are active in social media, so that part of our relationship will need to be respected. We are not opposed to a surrogate wanting to document the journey through social media, we would just want to make sure it is respectful of all parties. We are looking forward to getting to know our surrogate and helping in any way we can. We are very open to providing updates on the life they helped bring into the world and we will remain forever grateful for being able to make dreams like these possible.

We have been dreaming about having children our entire lives and are excited to go on this journey with you. We also really want to acknowledge how selfless it is to be willing to make such a large sacrifice to help those who are unable to enjoy the gift of children on their own. Thank you for the opportunity to share our story, and potentially make our dream a reality!