It was 2014 and San Francisco husbands Brian and Preston are meeting their eldest daughter for the first time. Little Pence comes to her dads through a surrogacy and egg donation journey and, needless to say, the dads are head over heels.
Two years later they try for a second baby with their remaining three embryos. But they’re unsuccessful, and the dads are heartbroken.
“I can’t express how upsetting it was when they didn’t work out,” said Brian.
“It also didn’t help that we were randomly chosen to be audited by the IRS – but that’s a terrible story for another time! (Don’t mess with the IRS, they’re ruthless!) And then the 2016 election on top of it all? Honey, oh honey, 2016 was not a banner year.”
After the unsuccessful transfers, the dads had no embryos left and had exhausted all their funds attempting to have a second child.
“We did not have the dollar, dollar bills to start all over from scratch, because surrogacy is expensive! Like, hella expensive!”
The dads explored adoption, but that was path was also costly.
“So, we figured we were done. We were happy to go about living our lives with our fabulous only child.”
Cut to seven years later…
One of the dads’ new jobs offers a family planning benefit that allows them to start the process once more.
“Without that we would never have been able to try again. Surrogacy is not cheap, y’all. Did I mention it’s like hella expensive! Even way more since 2016 too.”
This time around everything goes smoothly. “It was our own little miracle.”
They found an egg donor (check). They created new embryos equally fast and without incident (check). Matched with a surrogate within two weeks (check, check, check!).
“And then, incredibly, we ended up with a positive pregnancy with our fabulous first-time surrogate after only one transfer,” continued Brian. “We couldn’t believe it. The pregnancy was a joy for our surrogate, no issues, and the delivery was equally smooth. Minds. Blown.”
On January 13, 2024, this very tight family of three welcomed their newest member, little Posey.
“We are forever thankful we were able to welcome our sweet little baby boo boo into the world.”
And how is big sis Pence adjusting to a sibling?
“At first when we told her she was going to a big sister she was SO mad at us…That all melted away the moment she met her little sister. Now she wants to show her sister off to all her friends. Wants to hold her, feed her, dress her, everything – except change her diapers.”
And how are the dads…?
“Girl, we tired! We’re ten years older from the first go-round and it shows. Thankfully, the newborn snuggles more than make up for it.”
Congrats to this gorgeous family of four! Follow Brian and Preston on Instagram.
