Two dads from Atlanta have opened up about the beginnings of their own family and revealed how they welcomed two babies into their lives via two surrogate mothers.
27-year-old Terrell and Jarius Joseph from Atlanta had been dreaming about starting their own family ever since they bought a house back when they were 22.
To make their dreams come true, the gay couple started looking into surrogacy options in their early 20s only to find out that surrogacy agencies are very expensive and would charge them around $150,000 per pregnancy.
Eventually, the couple managed to find a surrogate mother on their own. 20 weeks into her pregnancy, however, a miscarriage occurred and left the lovers heartbroken.
After giving surrogacy another chance and finding another woman for the job, they found out she had a hard time getting pregnant.
Running low on options, and fearing that another pregnancy would end up in miscarriage, Jarius and Terrell decided to move on to the third surrogate while the second one was trying to conceive for the last time.
Miraculously, both surrogates conceived at the same time and the couple was “over the moon” as they learned they would be welcoming two babies in their family.
“I was over the moon because I always wanted twins and this was the next closest thing,” Terrell said.
Months later, the two babies were born prematurely and just weeks apart from each other.
“Looking back on it, it was just perfect. Once we actually got them back home, it was like everything we wanted. God’s timing is perfect,” Jarius said.
Following the start of their own family, the couple has amassed a great number of followers on social media where they share their experiences in raising kids as a gay couple.
“I feel like there are so many people in our community who still to this day don’t see the life that they would like to have being actually a possibility,” Jarius expressed.
“Don’t think that just because you’re part of the LGBTQ+ community that you can’t have certain things in life or that success won’t come your way.”
Confident that they can give their children everything they need, Terrell added:
“We can be active in our kids’ lives and give them everything that they dream of, or at least try to … We’re not raising our kids to be in a sexual identity or to think a specific type of way other than being open-minded.”
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