Relaxing Sunday Lunch at Lee & Tony’s Place (Blessington)

Today the weather was perfect and the company equally so! Jeff, Ethan and I ventured to Lee and Tony’s home in St Kilda for a relaxing Sunday afternoon lunch and for some a swim. Doug & Brett together with the twins (Leah and Daniel), Jason and Ruben (unfortunately Adrian had to work), Lee & Tony together with Xan and Luci. We had a great time and the kids got on great. The highlight for me was seeing Luci and Leah on the bed together chatting and playing together like teenage girls! Cute and a wonderful sight. Ethan didn’t eat (as usual) but we all had a great time. Lee and Tony are always such generous hosts!

MCV – "Community Spotlight – Parenthood: Doug’s Story"

In Sepember 2005, my partner Brett and I started discussing the possibility of having a family through surrogacy.  We’d mentioned it in conversation from time to time but never really looked at it closely, until one day over lunch we decided to try and find out how it was done.  For us, what followed was weeks of discussion, soul searching, agaonising but amazingly, not one argument.  the discussion went from “Why not have ids? We would eb great Dads? We can do it.  You only live once”.

Then came: “This is ridiculous. Are we nuts? Our life will be over.  We can’t get to dinner on time let alone raise children.”  The pro-family argument won out, and on August 21, 2005 we go the ball rolling (not to mention the bank account reducing!).

After initially being matched with a surrogate (who we later decided against for various reasons) we set about searching for an Egg Donor.  Just imagine trying to choose who will be the biological ‘other half’ of your child/children – very difficult.  After obtaining access to three separate websites loaded with a plethora of prospective donors, we chose our donor.  We went for a donor who had donated previously, as we wanted to reduce the risk of gettin ‘poor quality eggs’ which may result in limited or poor quality embryos.   After a few false starts with surrogates we were sent a profile on March 16, 2006 of our surrogate Anna and her family in Houston, Texas.  After a phone call match we decided that were were happy with Anna and her family the they with us.

Then followed a very emotional, stressful, exciting and exhausting time.

At last, out twins, Daniel and Leah were born on January 24, 2007.  We are enjoying being parents very much and wonder what we did with our life before….we certainly had more sleep.  I know that!  Good luck to all who go down the surrogacy path.  yes – it is worth it.

Stonnington Leader – "Prahran Dads back New Laws" by Julia Adler

Doug Weller and Brett Jenkin say they have what it takes to raise their one-year-old twin boy and girl: love, and plenty of it.

“If any child has one devoted and caring parent, they are lucky,” Brett said. “If they have two, they are extremely lucky.”

After spending more than $200,000 seeking a surrogate mother in Texas, US, Doug and Brett became the proud parents to twins in January 2007. The couple, who have been together for 13 years, said they had felt insulted by media scrutiny suggesting surrogate parents bought “designer babies”.

But this was not the case for Brett and Doug, who were desperate for a family. Media consultant Doug, 52, said: “These children were really wanted.” Doug said if Victorian laws had been different at the time, they wouldn’t have had to spend a small fortune finding a surrogate mother overseas to follow their dream.

The couple said they had been overwhelmed by the support and acceptance of the Stonnington community. “We’ve been warmly embraced by our mothers’ group,” said Brett, a former policeman who gave up work to be a stay-at-home father. “All of the mothers just see me as an equal.”

But outside Stonnington, Doug and Brett have battled prejudice. “People sometimes don’t know how to handle our family situation,” Brett said. He said the couple challenged the notion of social and sexual stereotypes: nuclear families and traditional gender roles. “Those who judge us don’t even know us or have seen our family unit in action,” Doug said. “They condemn us, not based on fact, but on prejudice. “They don’t think two men can be nurturing. “But they can be, and we are.”

The couple are committed to raising their children with traditional family values. “We don’t have mardi gras at our house every Saturday night,” Doug said. “We’ll bring up our children to not be bigots or prejudiced.”

What’s planned with laws?

Under the State Government’s reforms, the proposed new laws will include ones to:

* regulate altruistic, or non-commercial, surrogacy in Victoria;

* base treatment access on the problems the commissioning parents are having trying to conceive a child, rather than applying a test of clinical infertility to the surrogate mother;

* legally recognise surrogate parents with the surrogate mother’s consents and court approval;

* screen those seeking treatment in a clinic for charges involving sexual and violent offences and child protection orders; and,

* clarify that sperm and egg donors are not the legal parents of a child conceived through assisted reproductive technology.

[Link: Online]
[Link: Original Article]