Sam and Bryan
Our Story
Hi! We’re Sam & Bryan. I’m a photographer, and he farms for UC Davis. We’ve been together for 17 wonderful years. We have a 6 year old daughter named Ellorie – who asks us almost everyday when we can give her a sibling 😅! I have a family history of high risk births that put baby and I both in danger. With that knowledge, we pursued adoption and adopted our incredible Ellorie from birth. We also have a really amazing open adoption with her birth mama and feel deeply grateful to have her in our lives. After Ellorie was born, we started the adoption process again right away for baby #2, with no such luck. After waiting several years trying to adopt the first time, this round of waiting feels especially tender and long. We’ve experienced countless failed adoptions, miscarriages, and long quiet waits. We’re hoping surrogacy could give us our dream of expanding our family.💛
Our Interests
You’ll most likely find us eating good food, camping, exploring new places, or working on a house project.
Bryan is fantastic at fixing anything and growing good food with his super green thumb (one of Sam’s favorite things about him!) He loves sharing his love of food with everyone around him. Sam and Ellorie both love animals and cuddling up with a good book or movie. Sam is passionate about volunteering for her local crisis line and making her community a more beautiful place.
We love hosting – it’s important that our home is a welcoming place for family and friends. Whether it’s a barbecue, outdoor movie night, or a game night, we have fun spending time with the wonderful people in our life!
What kind of relationship do you envision with your surrogate?
Ideally, we’re looking for someone who wants a friendship as well! After having an open adoption with our daughter’s birth family, not having a friendship with our surrogate would feel cold to us. We want to respect your time, but also be excited and part of the journey together!
Extra Information
- Names: Sam & Bryan
- Location: Davis, CA
- Number of embryos: 5
- Agency: No
- Fertility Clinic: California IVF
- Surrogate Compensation: High 35,000-$45,000 range
- Requirements:
- COVID Vaccination
The Biggest Ask Says
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine provides the following recommendations for evaluation of gestational carriers (i.e., many fertility clinics will require the following for their gestational carriers) :
- Carried at least 1 child without complications
- Fewer than 3 deliveries via c-section
- Body mass index in between 19 and 32
- No smoking, abusing drugs, alcohol or prescription medications
- Not receiving welfare, public housing or cash assistance from the government
- Has a stable home life with emotional and child care support
- No mental health conditions requiring the use of medications within the last 6 months (including depression)
- No criminal record
No one likes to talk about surrogate compensation, but it is an important factor in any surrogacy agreement. The following is how we classify high, medium and low compensation (excluding the value of any benefits). Many factors affect surrogate compensation including surrogate experience (e.g., has the woman been a surrogate before?), whether the surrogate is signed up with an agency and surrogate preferences.
- Low = surrogate compensation less than $20,000
- Medium = surrogate compensation between $20,000 and $40,000
- High = surrogate compensation greater than $40,000
You can learn more about how much surrogates get paid in our surrogacy guide’s module: “How much does surrogacy cost?”.
Responses