Episode 103 – Billie – straight mum

00:14
Welcome back, or if this is your first time, thank you so much for taking the time to listen to Surrogacy Australia’s podcast series with me, your host Anna McKie. My guest on this episode was a co-host on the regular webinar series that I run. Those one-hour webinars are free and will take you through the surrogacy process in Australia. You will hear from a surrogate or parent and there are opportunities to type in your questions and we will try to answer them. You can find upcoming dates on our website at surrogacyaustralia.org.

00:44
This episode, recorded in May 2025, features Billie. Billie and husband Rob, from Western Sydney, became parents to their daughter, Weston, in December 2023. Weston was carried by her sister, Shannon, as Billie has MRKH, meaning she was born without a uterus. You may have seen their team featured on Channel 9 show, Big Miracles. If you’d like to watch their story, be sure to check it out on Nine Now, Big Miracles, Season 3, Episodes 4 and 5.

01:12
You can hear from her surrogate, her sister Shannon, in the previous episode, number 102. Billy speaks about the worries that many other IPs, intended parents, have when a surrogate carries their child. Things like, is she going to know who I am? Am I going to have that connection? And then on the day of birth, Billy said, when I laid eyes on her, I couldn’t even remember the worries anymore. I hope this episode brings hope to those who need it.

01:38
At the beginning there, so you found out that you were born without a uterus when you were younger. I guess talk us through that process a little bit that would have made you think about how am I going to become a mum? Do you remember receiving that diagnosis? Yeah, so I was probably around, I would say 12 years old, 13 years old.

01:56
quite very young and obviously like leading up to it, it turned out I had appendicitis. That’s the whole reason why it was all discovered. And so was in and out of hospital and had all these ultrasounds and MRIs. And then once I started having all these different tests done, the doctors and specialists and stuff kind of said to them, there’s something not right here. Like, you know, she’s missing something. When I had my appendix taken out,

02:20
I had my gynaecologist at the time come in and do a laparoscopary surgery at the same time, which was confirmed. Because they weren’t sure if it was just too small and it was hiding behind something and stuff like that. I guess once it was confirmed, it kind of sunk in. And even being so young and having that news told at such a young age, guess a lot of people probably wouldn’t have reacted the way I reacted, maybe. I’m not too sure. But I think my passion

02:50
to always be a mum was so strong from the get-go like ever since I was really little so it kind of did hit hard at quite a young age and then yeah so I guess I kind of knew that I would never be able to carry my own baby. As I got a bit older I started doing a lot more research on different avenues to kind of go down. Saragency wasn’t one of them because I didn’t really know much about it. It was more I looked into

03:16
adoption to begin with. That was my first thing. I thought, if I’m going to be a mum and I’m going to have a baby, I’m going to have to adopt.

03:23
I signed up to seminars and things like that and got all these information. When we kind of put our heads together and thought, okay, what’s going to happen? And Shannon had offered to donate her uterus. That was the first step. We flew to Brisbane or the Gold Coast and we had a consultation with the doctors up there. And then, yeah, that obviously didn’t go to plan, which we’re so grateful now that it didn’t. And then when all that kind of crashed down and we thought that was the end again, Shannon then turned around and said, well, you’re going

03:53
to be a mum one way or another and I’m going to make sure it

03:55
I make it happen so I’ll be your surrogate and I’ll carry a baby for you.” And then it was that moment there that we kind of looked into all surrogacy and what’s involved. And when I was gathering all this information, like, you know, even just you listening just then of everything you have to go through, like, you know, it isn’t just a walk in the park. Like it’s so much to kind of get through. And I had a lot of people used to say to me, how long until like, you know, you go through it? And I’m like, there’s so much more that we need to do before we even.

04:25
get to the point of even like having a baby or like you know saying that we’re pregnant like that. And had you met any or many people from the community that were IPs and tinderpads or surrogates yourselves or you were just trying to navigate it all on your own? So my auntie she had a friend which was their builder and she was actually a surrogate for somebody and they wrote a book about it I think it was called A Little Ray of Sunshine. I know them yes. Yes yes so she was really like good

04:55
friends with my Aunty and my Aunty got a book and I read the book and I got a lot of information from that. Yes and that was a good book because it tells both sides of the story doesn’t it? From the mum’s point of view and the surrogate’s point of view so yeah oh cool. And then I had contacted the surrogate which was my Aunty’s friend and I had been in contact with her and she actually referred me to join into these Facebook groups and stuff and she said you know there’s so much information in there and it was scary kind of writing different posts and stuff to try and get information

05:25
But Pete, the community and stuff that is in them groups were so lovely and like, you know, they just all want the same thing and they want you to be happy and they want, you know, your dreams to come true as much as their dreams to come true. So it was good and I did get a lot of information from that. But then it was like navigating, OK, I’ve got all these different counselors in front of me. Who do I go with?

05:47
Like it was, that was the hardest part. You don’t want to feel like you’re going into these psychologist appointments and counselling appointments and you’re not feeling comfortable. You need to feel comfortable with the counsellor and you need to, you know, have that connection. Otherwise it’s going to make you standoffish. So I needed to make sure that, you know, I had gotten good people, you know, that we felt comfortable with and that we connected with. So that was my biggest thing in the navigating all that. Yes, indeed. So much to navigate. It’s like another part-time job.

06:17
you

06:17
Yeah. Managing it all I find. Yeah. So then eventually you know you’re doing all of that paperwork but I guess there’s a little bit that I’m curious about because I’ve watched The Big Miracles, the different seasons and in season one they had a surrogacy team on. I’m wondering is that a show that you had watched and then saw that they were looking for people for another season and you applied? Yeah so obviously I absolutely loved the first season like I was on the lounge in tears absolutely every single like Wednesday night because it was on a Wednesday night back then. Oh no Monday night sorry it was on Wednesday nights this

06:47
The couple on there that did surrogacy I related to so like you know obviously with different situations their story kind of like I looked at their story and I thought oh my god this is what

06:57
I’m going to be going through like and I reached out to them, them guys and you know, I spoke to them and stuff and. Angus and Adam. Yeah. Yes. I reached out to them and you know, I spoke with them and you know, obviously congratulated them and stuff like that and told them a bit about my story. I did, I seen a post on RVF Australia one day and it was, you know, like, you know, they wanted people for season two and stuff like that. So I sent an email of our story and it was literally a couple of maybe the next day I got a,

07:27
phone call and then it was like a zoom meeting and then it was I had a talk with Shannon and Rob and I said okay they they want us on the show what do we do so we all you know we were all so nervous about it but it was something that you know it wasn’t just I wanted to do it and they didn’t or you know we were all on board and we always throughout the whole thing because there was times where things did get too much in your face and all these cameras and there was times where we just wanted to enjoy the moment just us kind of thing but they were so respectful and you know they were they were good they would

07:57
let you have your moment and they would let you obviously enjoy them things but they obviously needed to film certain things basically yeah I watched season one and I seen a post and then we were on

08:09
Yeah. Wonderful. It’s probably a good time I might switch to the photos now and also an opportunity to do a plug saying that your sister Shannon has been on as a co-host and so people can watch or listen to that recording and hear a bit more of other parts of the story. Okay so then this is embryo transfer day is it Billy? Yes. Wow it’s so many people in the room as your sister Shannon got pregnant with your baby hey? Yep.

08:34
Anything you remember in particular or want to say about that day? That photo, that was where it even though it all kind of began before that, but that was the very start of creating Western. So I don’t know, it’s emotional to kind of look back at that photo and see the hand that’s holding the little doubler thing, that’s my hand. Professor Illingworth let me hold where he was needing to put the embryo and he involved me so much in that moment.

09:04
I don’t know that was a very special special day of for everyone. Absolutely a very joyful day. Yeah. And so you had obviously been through egg collection yourself and so you had some embryos in the freezer. Yeah so I went through egg collection the year before in the September or late August early September. I had 17 eggs taken and then obviously with the days that went on we ended up with four embryos and we had them genetically tested and three of them come back perfect and one of them was like

09:34
on the verge of like, you know, they wouldn’t say it’s perfect, but if we were to ever use that embryo, we would need to be retested. We’ve got still three in the freezer still. That’s great because yes, Western work first go, didn’t it? Yeah. So we’ll work our way through the lovely photos we’ve got here. At some point in the pregnancy, you did some maternity photos here as a team.

09:54
Again, joyful day, I bet. Yeah, it was beautiful. I even though it was more of like, obviously, like we wanted to capture the moments of like Shannon carrying Weston and, you know, for her to always remember them times and for us and more so for Weston as she grows up, you know, we want her we we encourage we’re going to encourage her to talk about it and want to know how it all happened. you know, the photos are hanging up in her room like one, she gets to that age where she understands it. She’s going to look at them photos and realize

10:24
it’s not me that’s pregnant with her. And I can’t wait for that day to actually, you know, happen and I can sit down and show her and go through the whole journey with her. like, you know, this having this was a big thing for us because it kind of makes the whole journey easier to explain if you’re looking through photos for a little kid, obviously for Shannon, like, you know, we wanted it to purely be about her because we wanted her to have that moment of, you know, feeling beautiful and having these photos to always remember. So.

10:54
Yeah, it was a very special day. Beautiful. I think another special day going big time in time here is the gender reveal day. Yeah. Yeah. I couldn’t believe that. So I want to show you and so you were hoping for a girl. Yeah, I was. Rob was adamant that it was a boy. But then the morning, I think it was the morning of or the morning before, he said, I’ve been teen boy all along, but I don’t know, something’s telling me it’s going to be a girl. And he said, I’ve woke up this morning. The first thing I’ve seen is your pink dressing gown. Then there’s a pink straw in the sink. Then there’s something else pink. He said, everything should

11:24
pink and I was like you know are you gonna change your mind now and he said no no no I’m still sticking to team boy. Wonderful so yeah very joyful day lots of friends and family there and the camera crew to celebrate that day. Yeah. Just on the pregnancy is there anything in particular that you remember about that was it a hard pregnancy for Shannon or in terms of the types of support or how you felt during the pregnancy I mean there’s so many questions we could ask there.

11:50
Yeah, so I guess as you know, people are on that, you know, listen to Shannon last fortnight as she says it was one of the her best pregnancies in in all the pregnancies she has had. in terms of pregnancy and was it hard or was it not hard for her? I guess, you know, it was a very easy pregnancy. Everything just ran so smoothly, which was just incredible. We didn’t really come across any, you know, hard hoops during the pregnancy. It was just we had a really smooth sailing progress, I think, leading up to every

12:20
In terms of how I felt, I was just over the moon that I was obviously gonna, I was getting to become a mum. The lead up to obviously her birth and stuff, it got quite scary for me. you know, I was, cause there was times where I thought we’re just gonna leave this house one day and then next minute we’re gonna come home and there’s gonna be three of us. Like it was scary and obviously, you know, there was times where I got to feel Western move and kick in Shannon’s belly. There was moments where I felt sad that it wasn’t me, but I’m just so grateful.

12:50
grateful that you know to even have this opportunity and you know I guess for myself I was just it’s something that I never thought I’d ever get to experience so but you do have them moments where you do feel like you know not jealous or anything like that but I guess there’s always that

13:04
in the back of your mind. And I guess for Shannon too, she would have thought this should be something Billy’s experiencing. It wasn’t that way and there was just a different way around how we had to get there. Absolutely. And sometimes I find in surrogacy that the stories that the surrogate babies have to tell is that, you know, in a traditional setting, two hearts come together to create a child, classic man and a woman. But in surrogacy, many hearts come together. Yeah, that’s right. And what a unique story. That eventually brings us to the birthing day.

13:34
Yeah.

13:35
A plant cesarean and I love this photo because the camera crew is present. That was a very joyful day for them as well to be a part of. Yeah because the guy, well the one at the front, we had him a few times but the guy in the back, Sammy, he was incredible. We had him literally the whole way through, like start to the finish. So it was very special that he got to be there as well because you know he was a part of our journey and he’d been there and you know seen many tears and everything. Like he felt like

14:05
and if he wasn’t there it wouldn’t have felt the same. So yeah that’s beautiful see extra friends along the way for surrogacy. and so then that takes us into the birthing suite and um as I you know.

14:14
know from Shannon’s interview that we did, that moment of becoming a mum, hey, when you look back at these photos, what do you feel and think? Makes me really emotional, actually. Just, guess, yeah, I don’t know. Like, it’s a feel, like I watch Shannon’s video and she used to say to me all the time, like, you just feel this feeling when you see your baby and I definitely felt it. Yeah, it was just very, it was just a very, it seems like a dream even now, even though she’s

14:41
you know, almost a year and a half old, like she, I still look at her and I think, how, how is this real? Like how is this my life? So, you know, to see that moment there of when it actually all become real, it’s just incredible to, you know, look back at and, you know, remember those moments and, you know, the look on Shannon’s face when she’s seen Weston and seen my face see Weston and just Rob’s face see Weston, everyone, like, you know, it was very emotional. Yeah. Very special day for you all. Yeah.

15:10
Particularly, there’s so much build up, particularly if you’ve known for years and years and years that, you know, how am going to become a mum? And even when, yes, you’re on the surrogacy journey and yes, you’re pregnant, there’s still things that can go wrong and yeah.

15:23
And it can go wrong at any point in time, like, you know, just because you pass that 12 week point or it doesn’t matter, like our professor, when we went through IVF Australia, he would say, you’re never out of the woods. It’s true, isn’t it? Yeah. And then we go, then we start to see some beautiful photos of you guys being parents and having your first hold. And yeah, as the nurses do their checks, you’re by her side, by Western side. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty special. Yeah. And a classic question is often, you know, in the hospital, did you stay?

15:53
in rooms next door to each other for a couple of days? No, we stayed in the same room. Right. I guess being family, not too uncommon, but just for people listening, that’s another way of doing things. You often have rooms next door to each other in the hospital. Yeah, no, we had obviously spoke with our midwife of how things, how we would have loved things to have gone and they accommodated for that life, you know, to the best of their abilities. And we made sure that we were together and, know, that I could then be there for Shannon and support her, obviously having a sister.

16:23
area and she would have been in a lot of pain and you know I wanted to be there to help her and help her get up out of the bed and take her to the toilet and stuff like that and I don’t know I guess me and Shannon are very very close and because we’re sisters and stuff it just felt like we were having a slumber party. With a baby that has just come along. That’s great yes that beautiful bond really special slumber party that one. Yeah and so then we see some photos of life moving on and got photos here of Shannon’s four kids having the whole little

16:52
cousin. Yeah. And so they they are a big part of this journey too. Yeah.

16:57
People on the outside sometimes go, they think, oh, how are the kids going to cope with this? But I think kids are fine with it, aren’t they? Yeah, they’re incredible, them kids. Shannon’s kids are absolutely amazing. especially those girls, they’re like little mother hens to Western, especially when they come to visit or they have sleepovers here. And I’m busy doing something and Western’s a little bit unsettled or something. They’re straight in there with her, putting her dummy in or entertaining her. And they’ve even said to me, you can go and have a nap if you like.

17:27
We’ve got her and I’m like, it’s okay. They’re practicing being little mums. Yeah, no, they’re very, very hands on. Wonderful. And what a special story for them to be able to tell friends as well, hey? And then some photos here of post-birth when Weston’s, you know, starting to grow up and both Sue and Rob and then including Shannon in those photos too. Yeah, yeah, no, we always wanted to make sure that, you know, any kind of photos that we do do, that we do try and get her in them because without her she…

17:56
Weston wouldn’t ever be here and it’s because of her that we’re parents and we want to always honor Shannon in that way and make her always feel a part of our family because we’ve always said from the get-go it’s not just me and Rob and Weston, it’s me, Rob, Weston and Shannon. It’s the four of us. May I say, having been in this community for such a long time, this is beautiful to see because not every team does this. Yeah. And just hearing you speak about honoring her and including her in the photos, your action

18:26
are speaking louder, I mean your words are speaking volumes as well, but it’s about you actually including her as she’s not just a great friend or woman that did this for you. you’re a credit to doing surrogacy well in Australia, so great work team. Thank you. And then to sort of finish up some photos here.

18:43
We know that Shannon pumped milk for a long, time. was the Jersey cow. The Jersey cow. Did she do any direct feeding of Western? No, she didn’t. But there was times when she would have, she had mastitis quite a few times. And one of the big things that they said was, you know, that feeding off of…

19:02
off the boob can help that. And I would say to Shannon, if you need to do it, do it. Like, you know, I’m happy for you to do it. Like I wasn’t ever in whichever way, like, you know, oh no, I don’t want you to breastfeed her and stuff like that. If it was something Shannon would have loved to have done or needed to do, 100 % me and Rob would have been supportive and we didn’t, you know, encourage it at times. You know, if you need to do it or if it’s going to help you with, and you know, you’re not going to be in so much pain, just do it. That’s another credit to you to being so comfortable. Some women might have this fear that, if another woman breastfeeds my child,

19:32
the baby won’t bond with me but I’m fairly sure that you know that you’re mum. Yeah, yeah obviously at the start before she was born that was one of my biggest concerns was is she gonna know who I am and you know am I gonna have that connection but you know as soon as she was born and I laid eyes on her all them worries just it was like they didn’t even exist so.

19:52
You know, I don’t even know why I was worried. Yeah. But that’s really valuable for people to hear that those toys were real, but then they disappear. Yeah. Yeah. And why not have a baby have many adults love on that child? So can love on it too. And Rob can bond with the child, even though he hasn’t birthed her. Yeah. And so, yeah, so she pumped milk for many months and I hear it lasted until 12 months. Yeah. What a great start to life that she had on there. Like I think there was probably just one, I think we had one tin of formula towards the end, which I was kind of like mixing

20:22
feeds like you know doing to kind of we know because I didn’t want to just

20:26
stop the breast milk and then go straight to formula and her not like it. So for the last month I did like mixed and I would like you know kind of wean her off the breast milk but introduce her to the formula so yeah and she was absolutely fine. Well well done you navigating breast milk too because it’s quite a bit to navigate with temperatures and things. Yeah. These last photos here of your cutie little girl growing up big smile. Is that a pretty special feeling when you get to be able to take selfies with you and see her and stuff too. And she’s such a

20:56
great little mixture of like both Rob and I like a lot of people will say she’s very much like me but I feel like with her hair done and she looks real girly and stuff she does look very much like me but when she just wakes up in the morning and she looks at me I think oh god you’re like your father you know just having these moments and being other like

21:14
Then photos there, took her to, obviously we love country music and you know, we took her to our first country concert. And everyone just like loved her, around us in the arena and like obviously where we were sitting, a lot of people just absolutely adored her and they didn’t know whether to watch the artist or her dancing and having the best time. So, you know, having these moments and enjoying them times together, obviously.

21:39
at times that we never thought we’d ever get to experience. So we just make the most of everything. Wonderful. Well, some beautiful photos that we’ve had there. We’ve had a couple of questions typed in, so I might just go through them now before we come back to your journey a bit more. An anonymous person says, what does the community tend to say about the total average cost for IPs to go through the entire surrogacy process? I’ll answer that because I’ve actually done some data gathering on it and

22:02
Billy, you’re welcome to add in yours if you want to, but you can choose not to. So the average is about 60,000 to be honest. That’s how much it costs my dad’s. The range is about 35 to 90,000. So at the lower end, that’s if it worked first embryo transfer. So only one egg collection needed. If they live locally to each other, so there wasn’t much travel. If there weren’t lots of wages to pay, so it could be done.

22:24
at that end and the $90,000 end or you know sometimes it just keeps going is if you needed multiple egg collection cycles, many embryo transfers, travel interstates or hotels, flights and if the surrogate had loss of wages and the expenses just mounted up. So Billy did you want to say the amount that yours cost or keep that private? Oh like it was basically yeah I would say around like the $60,000 as well but it was obviously you know I would add into obviously my part of going through you know.

22:54
Yeah, yeah. Yes, because that’s the cost that took to get Western here. Yeah, yeah. So, I hope that helps to answer that one. Daniel has typed in, do you need to find a lawyer, IVF clinic and egg donor prior to finding a surrogate or can it be done in any order? Interesting question. You tend to look into those things once you do have a surrogate. But I suppose if you are in the community, you can start gathering some names of the lawyers, the counselors and the clinic. In terms of the egg donor, if you’re two guys and Daniel, I think I know that you are, I know your name, I would be

23:24
encouraging you to start the egg donor process. Sometimes it can be quite appealing for a surrogate if you already have the embryos made because it shows that you’re committed to this journey and then that’s one step of the process that’s already done. But you can also be doing them parallel, you could be looking for an egg donor and a surrogate at the same time. Okay so feel free to keep typing in questions people. I was just going to ask Billy, back to the pregnancy, what types of supports were you able to do to help with Shannon and her kids? Was there any particular things that you remember? And by doing those supports for her, did it sort of feel like you were

23:54
therefore helping your unborn child?

24:24
never make her come to my house and have to travel, would always kind of always go out of my way to make sure she was at home and you know with our midwife we had a lot of like home visits and stuff like that.

24:34
It wasn’t very often that we had to go to the hospital, which was really good. We didn’t have to sit in the waiting rooms and stuff like that. You know, there was times where we’d just go over there and, you know, we’d just hang out. We would just, if there was anything she ever needed, like, you know, I would always every single day would ring her, FaceTime her, message her just to ask how she was feeling. Did she need anything? You know, if there was times where she did feel unwell or had a bit of a headache, like, you know, do you want me to take the kids? Like there was times where I had her kids for a sleepover to kind of give her.

25:04
a bit of a break. was times where, like she spoke about me, my mum went there and did a massive big spring clean of the house and we were out in ladders and up and down.

25:13
doing the windows and everything. Just so she had a beautiful clean home to not have to worry about when she had West End and come home and didn’t have to really do much. We used to always encourage the kids too, towards the end, make sure you help your mum as well. Just pack away the dishes or ask her if she needs anything. Little things like that we would always encourage. If she ever needed anything, she knew she could always.

25:39
call me any time and I would always like do whatever I could to make her feel better or feel comfortable and just clothing like I would always just rock up there with you know obviously as she got bigger and you know her belly grew and stuff like that and you know she’d say oh these pants don’t fit me I would I’d be straight on you know ordering some new ones like you know so I always made I feel like you know that she was very looked after. Sounds like yeah you’re great team there and I suppose being sisters too like in terms of

26:06
ordering her clothes, knowing her size and the style. And that’s it. That’s finding ways to support your surrogate while she supports your baby. Yeah, that’s it. Beautiful. Had another question typed in here. It’s a little bit more generic, not so much about your journey, but it’s asking, do we see a high percentage of IPs start the process and then stop because they cannot find a surrogate? They know there are many factors involved.

26:28
What do we see in terms of those who start and those who end up successful? Good question, anonymous. Yes, I suppose at the end of the day, there are going to be many people that don’t end up doing surrogacy in Australia. I guess finding that the surrogate is the biggest hurdle. I’ll give an example. There’s about 100 to 120 births, surrogacy births in Australia each year. There’s actually no national database on this. So just a couple of us in the community have done some data gathering. let’s say it’s 120 Aussie parents that have Aussie surrogates. There’s another three to 400 Aussie

26:58
each year who go overseas for surrogacy. So to me that says there’s another three or four hundred Aussie IPs that would like to do surrogacy in Australia. Fair enough some of them probably prefer the commercial model in terms of that guarantee of a surrogate and some certainties and some are a bit nervous about the legals in Australia in terms of that first birth certificate having the surrogates name on it. So yes it’s about weighing up your options but certainly trying to do surrogacy in Australia because then you get to go through our Medicare system, you speak the same language.

27:25
and all of those things. Just listening to that, Billy, have you got any advice for people who might be at the beginning of their journey? I guess obviously for me was very different because I obviously did have a surrogate to obviously start off with.

27:38
But if I was to ever have to go down that journey again or, you know, had another surrogate, obviously just, I guess, like the communication between the surrogate and the attendant parents, it’s just as long as you have strong communication and stuff like that, you have a good chance of always kind of getting that happily ever after.

27:57
Yeah, that’s good advice, good communication. And that’s what I hear from so many teams. Can you think of any times then that were slightly tense among your team or with you sort of saw? No, no, no, we were always on the same page, I guess, like with Shannon just obviously included us in absolutely everything. So, you know, even though was her carrying our baby, you know, she wanted to make it feel as though, you know, we were there through everything to the point where she, yes, she would FaceTime me when she’s thrown up in a toilet bowl, like, you know, just to tell me she’s been sick and this one, your little

28:27
one didn’t like this and I can’t eat this anymore and the smell of this makes me sick and…

28:32
You know, just little things like that we just felt so involved with. Obviously at the start, the very start, she had after the transfer, she had like a few little bleeds. At that moment in time, obviously she’s worried because she’s, is this, you know, what she’s thinking? Like, you know, is it just implantation bleeding? There was obviously hard times for her to then have to call me and say, look, don’t panic, but I am having a little bit of bleeding. But then, you know, I would just panic instantly thinking like, you

29:02
It hasn’t happened or it hasn’t worked and there was times right at the beginning where you know, it was very uncertain Obviously you have all these mixed emotions and stuff like that of the unknown but obviously once we got past that stage and it was confirmed and then we had the 12-week scan and as things got on and stuff like that everything was just Smooth sailing but there was times where obviously she would have had to call us or confront us with hard things that

29:27
she was dealing with, but you know, we always said, no matter what happens, we would always stick together. Like, so that’s just how we were and that’s what we did. Yes, and a great team and a beautiful little girl has come from it. Yeah. Well, I think that probably sums everything up that we’ve talked about there and hearing you talk about some of the hard parts there in terms of the things that you couldn’t control. Is there any last bits of parting advice you’d like to give to people or any last?

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things that you’d like to comment on about your own journey? Oh, I wouldn’t say my own journey, but I feel like advice that…

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other In Tendon parents out there that are, you know, whether you have your surrogate or whether you’re still yet to find your surrogate, don’t give up. Always just keep looking for that hope and that beautiful blessing in the, you know, near distance. Like, you know, it’s just the feeling of having a family and stuff like that. You know, there was times where I thought it was, it wasn’t ever going to happen for me. And I look back now and I just think if I could just tell myself 10 years ago or how, how my life would be,

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right now, I would be a completely, you know, maybe wouldn’t have gone through certain parts of my journey.

30:34
to get to this point where I felt those feelings of it never gonna happen and things like that. So I just feel like everyone should always keep trying and keep pushing to get to that end goal. dreams do come true because my dream did. That is perfect. Indeed, they can come true and yours does. Yeah. Thank you for sharing your beautiful story and photos. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining me.

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