Help us recover our dream of family

We are Chris and Jonah, a happily married gay couple. We've been together over 10 years. During the past 3 years we've worked hard to save money to start our family through surrogacy, a long and expensive process in which we need to hire and work with doctors, clinics, egg donors, surrogates, lawyers and the courts. On the salaries of a Paralegal and an Adjunct Professor, we managed to beg, borrow and save $25,000 to get the process started. Typically the whole process can cost between $45,000 USD - $100,000 USD.

In Summer of 2013 we gave all our savings of $25,000 to a company that stole it all from us and left us with nothing. Less than nothing, since some of that money was borrowed from family.

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*** NOTE THAT YOU CAN DONATE ANY AMOUNT FROM $1 ON UP. Any amount is appreciated. ***
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During the process that finally completely derailed in November 2013, we endured mismanagement, homophobia, negligence, lies and betrayal of our trust. Our anonymity was completely compromised and our anonymous egg donor learned our identity and chose to not donate to us because we are gay. The donor abandoned us and the donation process ON THE DAY on which fertilization of her donated eggs was scheduled. We came within inches of starting a family. Instead of donating, she got on a plane and flew home.

We don't want to mention the name of the company here because we are negotiating with them to hopefully get some of our money back. We will update the amount here when and if that happens. We are also exploring legal action to get our money back, but that road will be long and expensive as well. More important even than the money, the agency stole time from us.

We're devastated and trying not to let our hopes for having a family be crushed.  but we know we will not let this experience stop us from starting our family. We are now moving on to try surrogacy in the U.S., working with wonderful professionals here. Our family has helped us to raise a good amount of money as you can see, but we need more to make our dream of family into a reality.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

You know how they say that it takes a village to raise a child? Well, in our case, and for many gay men and lesbians who dream of building a family, it takes a village to *make* a child! So, please join our village and donate what you can to get us back on the road to fatherhood. Any amount will make a difference. We are also searching for a new egg donor and gestational carrier (surrogate).

THE PICTURE BOOK
*** NOTE THAT YOU CAN DONATE ANY AMOUNT FROM $1 ON UP. Any amount is appreciated.

But if you decide to donate $250 or more, I would like to invite you to send a photo of your family, or you, or your favorite animal, or anything, really, to us with a little text to accompany it (photos and text will be approved by us and we will let you know if we don't think it's appropriate). Your text could be some advice perhaps, or just a hello. If you donate at this level, please contact us through GoFundMe for our direct email address so you can send photos. I plan to take these pictures and words and create a picture book for our future children titled "Your Village" so that they can know how important community is, how much love there is in the world and how a group of people coming together can make all the difference.

Thank you.