By Danielle Kutchel
A story of surrogacy success. When David and Lauryn Jordan decided they were ready to have a baby, they knew it wouldn’t be an easy journey.
Lauryn was born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome, a condition that meant she was born without a uterus.
Undaunted, the couple went through two rounds of IVF that resulted in three viable embryos.
The next step was to find a surrogate, so they joined the Australian Surrogacy Community Facebook group to explore their options.
Surrogate Sarah got in touch with them and the trio gradually got to know each other through online messages before finally meeting face to face at the Australian Surrogacy Conference.
“The easiest way to describe it is that it’s like dating, getting to know her, her husband and her kids,” Mr Jordan said.
“We would go to each other’s houses and chat and get to know each other, which was a really valuable and important part of the process.
“You need to lay the foundations and work out each other’s values to see if it’s going to work.”
Legally, the Jordans were unable to openly ask Sarah to be their surrogate; they were therefore overjoyed when she made the offer to them one night in Canberra, where she and her family live.
There were yet more hurdles though, including individual and group counselling sessions, psychological tests, legal advice and finally a submission to the Patient Review Panel – all part of the surrogacy process.
Once they were given the all-clear, the Jordans transferred an embryo to Sarah.
Unfortunately, it miscarried at 10 weeks; but the next embryo was more successful.
The pregnancy was “uneventful”, Mr Jordan said, with everything happening as it should, and the couple made every effort to get to Sarah’s appointments interstate.
“She was so respectful of us too and included us in the milestones like the first kick and how she was feeling,” Mr Jordan added.
The birth earlier this year was “one of the best experiences of my life”, he said. He and Lauryn were allowed in the room with Sarah and her husband in an experience that he will never forget.
Their daughter was born healthy and well and given the name Everlie.
Mr Jordan said Sarah, her husband and her children are considered “part of the family”, and they plan to tell Everlie the “absolute truth” about her birth.
“We described it to Sarah’s kids as ‘Lauryn doesn’t have a house in her tummy’, so we’ll probably go with that,” he said.
The Jordans are one of the families featured on the ABC TV show ‘New Dads’, which is currently available on iView.
Hosted by Jane Caro, the show explores the lives of five Australian men navigating their first year as new dads. Mr Jordan hopes his segment will challenge the misconceptions and taboo around surrogacy.
“It’s just our normal; it’s how we had to have a baby,” he said.
Since the show first aired on ABC, he has been recognised by people who have told him how much they appreciated the show.
“I went through the drive-through for coffee and a guy recognised me from TV. He said he really enjoyed the program and found it informative,“ Mr Jordan said.
He and his family have also been featured on the Raise the Bar Radio podcast, which is available on SoundCloud, to continue to open the conversation about surrogacy.
Little Everlie is now seven months old, and Mr Jordan said fatherhood had been “eye opening“.
“She has started to giggle and laugh, and she’s started to growl at us too. She’s much more aware of her surroundings and if we go out of the room she follows us. When we walk into the room there’s a big smile for us.
“It’s special. She’s growing as she should be.
“It’s awesome being a dad.”
For support or resources around surrogacy, please visit the Surrogacy Australia website.
