Sunday, June 17, 2012

Surrogate Sisters: The Ultimate Gift

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/15/surrogate-sisters-the-ultimate-gift/

I was a little late in posting this. It has already aired, but hopefully you can still watch it somewhere. I was hoping to embed the video, but you'll just have to click on the link above to watch the clip teaser. Hooray for another positive surrogacy story!


Surrogate Sisters: The ultimate gift

Editor's note: Surrogate Sisters airs on "Sanjay Gupta, MD" this Saturday at 4:30 p.m. EST and Sunday at 7:30 a.m. EST.
As people on CNN's Health team will tell you, one of my favorite sayings is, "It's better to be lucky than smart." This is one of those instances.  
A few months ago, I saw a picture on a friend's Facebook page of a kid's science project, showing how much sugar is in some popular drinks. The picture came from a "friend" of my friend. Intrigued, I sent a message to my friend's friend.
The recipient was Tiffany Burke, a photographer and mother of two in Bellingham, Washington. Turned out the picture didn't belong to Tiffany, but she told me something amazing.

She was in the process of becoming a surrogate mother for her brother and sister-in-law. Tiffany shared with me a link to the blog where they were documenting the experience.
I was blown away. I've talked with surrogate moms in the past, but this was the first time I met someone who was doing it for a family member. A million questions were racing in my head: How do you have the "Will you be my surrogate?" conversation?  Were lawyers involved?  How do you explain it to your biological children?
I shared the story with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and a few other members of the team.  They also were also intrigued.  We asked Tiffany and her family if we could join them on their journey.  They agreed.  
Over the next 9 and a half months, we will share the ups and downs, the joys and challenges, of this unique way one family found to grow.

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