Kayla, American Intended Parent in Kingston Springs, Tennessee, USA

Explain your reasons for wanting a surrogate/donor:

We lost our baby girl only 6 short months after she was born.We miss her more and more each day.We love kids, we want kids, but we are terrified of having another baby and risking that our future children will also have this disease.The disease is called SMA.it stands for spinal muscular atrophy.1 in 40 Americans are carriers of this mutated gene and 1 in *** babies are diagnosed.We are not willing to risk having another baby with this disease.We are meant to be parents and we feel hopeless right now.I would love to carry my own child but once you find out that you are "genetically toxic", you are a little scared and become very hesitant.

How would you best describe yourself(s):

I am married to my high school sweetheart! We have been together for 7 years and married for 3.We had our first baby girl, Tatum, in August of *** she was diagnosed with a genetic disease in October *** and passed away in February of *** after fighting a cold.I still consider myself a mother however I miss her dearly and some days are better than others.We have a niece who we care for about 3-4 days out of each week.She is a huge part of our lives and we love her as if she is our own.I am a nurse at a pediatric primary care office in Nashville, and my husband is a plumber who will soon be starting up his own company that will be ran out of Kingston Springs.We have lots of goals and lots of dreams together but we both feel that we are meant to be parents.We both want a baby.

Use this space to communicate a letter to potential Surrogates/Donors:

My husband and I found out only 2 months after having out first child that our genetics can cause a terminal and fatal disease.The disease is completely random and our next child could be *** normal and have no signs of Spinal Muscular Atrophy.However, the disease itself is so limited on treatments and therapies at the present time that we feel as if we need other options.We want children, and having lost our first born due to something completely out of our control, we are slightly hesitant.We are so loving, caring, and totally selfless when it comes to children.We are so happy together but we feel as if we aren't complete anymore.We felt totally complete after we had out daughter.We had a family.We miss her so bad somedays it hurts.Having another baby may not fill the void that we feel due to Tatum's passing but it will definitely feel normal and the plan that we have for ourselves and our future children will be even closer to being fulfilled.