Written by Sharon Simons

“It was just a dream to actually see him and he’s ours. He’s beautiful.” – Dr. Mary Hui-Wee

They had been married for 22 years. They entered a season of life when many parents were watching their children graduate high school. But now they are joyfully celebrating the arrival of their first child, Connor, born in December. They have traveled quite the twisted road to become Connor’s parents. Three failed In Vitro Fertilization treatments set them back financially and took a huge emotional toll. “Every time they found out they weren’t pregnant, it was heartbreaking!”

By the mid-1990s they explored, but decided against, adoption. That’s when surrogacy became a real possibility. After catching an Oprah Winfrey episode on the subject, it seemed the perfect option. After so much time had passed and funds spent, they took the wheel without an agency – via the Internet. The Yashoda Infertility & Healthcare Services in Mumbai, India and coordinator, Dr. Meenakshi Puranik, impressed them immediately with high standards and credentials.

They found out that YIHS takes care of the surrogate mother during the pregnancy. The surrogates live on site in apartments until the baby is born. The YIHS maternal care, they discovered, is all encompassing. Surrogates at YIHS have regular check-ups, medications and health insurance and the clinicians monitor their diets and healthy lifestyles from beginning to end. It was another bonus over the adoption process for them.

They headed to Mumbai in April to begin immediately. (They didn’t tell anyone for a while and felt people might have thought they were crazy to do this!) A couple of weeks later, the fertility treatment materialized into a parental dream come true. A healthy, 27-year-old woman was pregnant.  Thanks God! They were finally going to have their first baby.

They sent two more installments to pay the clinic and reimburse the surrogate before Connor Robert Hui-Wee arrived on December 3. However, Connor was robust for a preemie, weighing in at six pounds two ounces. Mary rushed to India and Connor was immediately her own. They handed him to her that same day. She was just ecstatic!! In addition, Mary was able to meet the surrogate mother. She was very gentle and her face lit up when she met her.

Her husband made it to Mumbai a couple of weeks later to escort their family back home. However, leaving the country with their newborn turned into an unplanned two-month scuffle with the embassy, immigration, and other entities. They wanted all kinds of things from them that they didn’t bring — utility bills, income tax returns and etc. And they also wanted a DNA test to prove that Connor was their biological child (they told them this 10 days later after many meetings, and it was supposed to be “optional”). It was so frustrating. No one told them any of this, and the information they researched did not provide these detailed requirements.

They lived in an apartment in India while they alternated trips to the U.S. and back before paperwork was finally in compliance. In February, the happy family came home. Still after all that they are so happy and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Though it has a happy ending, to call the experience traumatic is an understatement. From exorbitant agency costs for any kind of assistance to paperwork requirements they’ve never heard of after Connor was born, they had been through the gauntlet of Indian surrogacy and realized that they didn’t want anyone else to suffer through the frustrations, pain, and fear we had to endure. Thus WeeCare Partners LLC was born.

They take their knowledge about all the things, great and small, that can go wrong in the process, they have made multiple trips to India to study the surrogacy process, the legal system, medical centers, and the American Embassy’s requirements following birth. Partnering with the best medical and legal professionals, they have dedicated themselves to helping families  navigate the international surrogacy process, so that others can bring their babies into the world with a spirit of joy and relaxation.

For more information about India Surrogacy please check our web site. http://www.weecaresurrogacy.com/index.html

We will be sharing many success stories becoming a Mom At Last, please visit www.momatlast.com