I’m Tassia. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, but made my way over to sunny Southern Utah after high school. I love animals, reading, traveling, jiujitsu, anything outdoors, and, most of all, being a mother. My love for pregnancy and birth began with my first daughter. After delivering in July 2014, I found a new passion for pregnancy and delivery. In February of 2018, we had yet another absolutely beautiful birth and welcomed another daughter into our family. With these two precious girls, we knew our family was complete. However, I did not feel my journey of being pregnant was over.
After years of watching friends and family struggle with infertility, miscarriage, and other struggles to make their families whole, I started to research surrogacy cautiously. A family friend of mine had posted about her surrogacy journey and was kind enough to Zoom chat with me and explain the process. This is how I found AFS, and I applied in July of 2019. At my pap, they found precancerous cells on my cervix that needed to be removed. This meant I had to wait an extra six months for a follow-up and the “all clear” to move forward. The month I was due for my follow-up was when the Covid-19 pandemic shut everything down. After a few extra months (and patience), I got the green light, and I was finally able to begin my first surrogacy journey!
The agency did a fantastic job with the matching process. The first profile I came across was better than I could have ever hoped for. We had a match call over Zoom, and both of us gave an enthusiastic yes to move forward. In June 2021, the Intended Parents (IPs) stood by my side as we completed the embryo transfer. I video-chatted with them for every prenatal appointment. The IPs became like extended family, and when they came into town to prepare for the baby, we could spend much time together. I LOVED having them in the room for the birth, and hands-down, my favorite part of the whole journey was when the mother was able to catch her baby boy! There were happy tears from almost everyone in the room. After knowing their years of struggles and watching them anxiously await their baby’s arrival, witnessing them become parents was one of the most rewarding, humbling experiences of my entire life. Everything we went through together was beyond worth it.
I chose to pump breast milk for the baby and shipped packages of frozen milk to the family every 2-4 weeks for the next six months. Now, more than a year after the delivery, we have been able to go on a few trips together and share photos often! Over this time, I went back and forth to decide to do one last journey. I put things on the back burner until my coordinator at AFS reached out to me in October of 2022. She told me she had the most wonderful family that would be an excellent fit for me. After reading their story, there was no doubt in my mind that I would be doing one more surrogacy journey. I took time to think about it and discuss it with my family just to be safe.
The initial process flew by the second time, and by May of 2023, we had completed a successful embryo transfer. We have met the family in person a few times now and have been able to video chat for every appointment so far. I am currently 15 weeks pregnant and look forward to sharing all the beautiful milestones with these sweet parents. This will be my final pregnancy, and surrogacy has brought so much joy and love into my family’s life. I cannot express how lucky I feel to have these wonderful new people in my life.
