This article is part of our family feature series with Circle Surrogacy, a surrogacy agency that has been helping LGBTQ+ singles and couples realize their dream of parenthood for the past 20 years.

Byron and Matthew Slosar, both 41, met ten years ago at one of New York City’s Equinox gyms. “I asked him for a spot on the bench press,” smiled Byron. The couple were married September 22, 2012.

Surrogacy was always the way Byron and Matthew wanted to become parents. They chose to wait and become dads later in life, until they had established careers and the financial means to pursue their chosen path.

They signed with Circle Surrogacy after interviewing a few agencies. “We immediately connected with their entire staff, particularly Anne Watson who lovingly dealt with my healthy neuroses on the daily for 1.5 years,” said Byron. “They definitely personalized the service and helped us understand all 2,000 moving parts.” The dads-to-be were also very impressed with how much emotional support they received from Circle.

When the husbands started their journey, they didn’t know what to expect. From talking to friends, they learned that the general perception of the relationships between Intended Parents and surrogate was purely transactional; but they knew they wanted more. They searched for someone who would be open to having a relationship with their family, beyond just helping them to build it. “The end result was phenomenal,” said Byron. “Not only did we grow our immediate family with a beautiful baby boy – but we also grew our extended family through Misty, Blake and their kids.”

Misty had already been a surrogate for another family but she knew from the beginning that Matthew and Byron were different. “When I went up to see them in New York, the minute they opened the door it was amazing. They felt like family. I knew I could trust them and lean on them.”

Misty’s husband Blake also embraced the husbands, and their own kids refer to them as their “guncles.”

However, the dads-to-be did experience some setbacks. After the first round of fertilization with their first egg donor, the dads-to-be found out they could not work with her. Byron and Matthew had to find a new egg donor and go through another egg retrieval and fertilization process. “And then we had an unsuccessful first transfer with Misty,” shared Matthew. “All of these took more of a toll on us emotionally than we expected.”

But from their second transfer Misty became pregnant. Blake phoned to congratulate them for “knocking up” his wife. “Blake has been the comedic relief during our journey!” said Byron’

On April 30, 2018, the dads welcomed little Byron.

Since that day, Byron and Matthew have loved being a modern family. “We have learned that all of the comments we rolled our eyes at before, like ‘you’ll never know how it feels to see your son recognize you,’ or that ‘you never knew how much you can love something so much'” is beyond perfect and accurate when you’re in the moment,” Byron shared.

Their priorities have changed and they enjoy spending more time at home, or at the park, and they do it because they want to, not because they have to. “We have both learned a much better work / life balance,” explained Matthew. “While many of our friends have commented about such a dramatic change in lifestyle – we were very social and busy before – we remind them that this has been planned for 5+ years. We front-loaded a lot of travel and activity coming into this knowing we wouldn’t want to be doing as much once our son arrived.”

“We like to say that 99% of the shits we have to give are now reserved for our son,” added Byron, “so, we are very selective with the remaining 1%.”

The dads have also learned to whisper fight with each other in the bathroom since all of their family and many friends have access to Byron’s crib camera which picks up sound more impressively than they thought it would.

The dads will be forever grateful beyond words for their surrogate Misty and her family. “Just when you think you’re increasing your family by one, get ready as we thought that too but our family has grown by 8,” said Byron. This includes their nanny NanaRose and her son who help the dads with Byron while they work full time. “Wouldn’t have it any other way but definitely not what we expected.”

And their advice to gay men considering fatherhood? “Everyone has their own journey. Put your blinders on and do it whatever way is best for you. Regardless of how you do it, you’ll be exhausted from the moment it starts until, well, forever. In an amazing way. Because you have a child and every minute for the rest of your life that little nugget is in every thought, action, breath and word you speak. You’ll be living for two people now – so get some rest. And definitely don’t take parenting advice from people without kids. Seriously. You laugh now but remember this comment when it happens 1000 times over.”