Happy Birthday to Us!

Northwest Surrogacy Center, LLC turns 20 years old today! Join us as we take some time to reflect on where we came from, where we are now, and where we’re going.

For starters, we’ve grown a lot in the last 20 years. (Seriously, a LOT.) When we opened our doors in 1994, surrogacy was a foreign concept to most people, and the medical advances that make it so successful today hadn’t yet taken place. We worked with just a handful of families a year, and pregnancy was hoped for but by no means guaranteed. Boy, have things changed! These days surrogacy shows up more and more in the news and in conversation, and gay families and people experiencing infertility know that having their own biological children isn’t just a dream, it’s a real option. We are working with ever-growing numbers of families all over the world, and the success rates for families who stick with it are essentially 100 percent.

That means we’ve helped make a lot of babies. How many babies? Last year alone we began working with almost 100 new families, who have either welcomed new children into their lives already or are looking forward to doing so in the next year. You can follow us on Facebook to get weekly updates on all the babies born and conceived – last week alone, four of our surrogates had confirmed pregnancies for five little babies who will be born in 2014!

Your families aren’t the only ones that are growing. Northwest Surrogacy Center just isn’t the kind of place you want to leave. In fact, we haven’t had a single staff member quit, ever. But that doesn’t mean things haven’t changed around here! Amazingly, our staff has more than doubled in the past two years. Even more amazingly, we still feel like a family. Getting to come to work every day with smart, kind, funny people who genuinely care about each other—and about you—is one of the best parts of our jobs, hands down.

And speaking of family, check out THIS GUY: 

Who could resist Northwest Surrogacy Center’s newest Staff Baby, Miles?? Director of Legal Services Tabitha Koh and her wife Laurie sure know how to make good babies.

We’ve opened a second office. One of the changes we’re most excited about is our brand new office in the heart of San Francisco. The Bay Area and Northern California is close to our hearts, both because of personal connections many of us have to the area, and because of our deep commitment to helping gay families have children. Stay tuned on the blog for more details – or give us a call at 415-426-7849 to set up a time to meet us in person in the City by the Bay. We’ve also begun accepting applications from surrogates who live in the greater Bay Area!

We’ve seen the world – and you’ve brought the world to us. In the last two decades we’ve visited or had visitors from Israel, France, Australia, Denmark, Spain, Brazil, China, Mexico, Sweden, Portugal, Luxembourg, Canada, and the United Kingdom. If it takes a village to raise a child, sometimes it takes a world to make one. We’re so pleased to get to know families from all over that world.

So what’s next? We have a lot of ideas, hopes, and plans for the next year—not to mention the 19 after that. We want to build a community that will allow you to connect with and find support from other surrogates or intended families no matter how far apart you live. We want to continue to raise awareness of surrogacy as a real and exciting option for gay families and families struggling with infertility. We want to get a coffeemaker large enough for all of us. (Hey, we’re dreaming big!)

But our biggest goal is simply to provide the best support we possibly can to all of the surrogates and intended families we care so much about. That’s the goal that inspired us twenty years ago when we first opened our doors, and it’s the goal that continues to inspire us every single day when we sit down at our desks to read your emails, chat with you by phone and Skype, and get a little misty-eyed over the photos of your beautiful families. We feel truly honored to be a part of your stories, and are so grateful that you have been part of ours. Here’s to the next twenty years, and all the new lives and amazing journeys they will bring.

With love, The Northwest Surrogacy Center Staff