The long road to fatherhood

http://www.dallasvoice.com/long-road-fatherhood-1079396.html

Terry Clayton and Steve Oxley had to travel halfway around the world to get their sons, but the journey was worth the effort

Terry Clayton and Steve Oxley knew early on in their relationship that they wanted to be parents. And after a little research, they decided that commercial surrogacy was the best way to go.

Still, as Clayton notes, surrogacy wasn’t without its potential pitfalls.

“We were certainly concerned about the perils of commercial surrogacy. You hear these stories about the mother changing her mind at the last minute. And commercial surrogacy isn’t legal everywhere. It is legal in some states, but not others,” he said.

The couple, who lived in California at the time, also quickly found another drawback: cost. Although commercial surrogacy is legal in California, Clayton says, they discovered that going through a reputable agency would cost them about $100,000 to $125,000 for the full package of services.

“That just wasn’t affordable for us,” Clayton says.

But he and Oxley weren’t ready to give up on their dream. So they started researching the issue and quickly found online a large community of people who either already had children through commercial surrogacy or were in the process of having children that way.

Clayton travels frequently in his job as senior vice president of sales with a California-based furniture company. He was on a business trip early in 2009 when he found out, through that online community, that commercial surrogacy is a thriving business in India, where the service is available for about a quarter of what it would cost in California.



I LOVE the picture.

What a great story.

I guess 75 percent off is a good deal.

Humans, disgusting.