Kristin & Alex, American Intended Parent in Arlington, Virginia, USA

Explain your reasons for wanting a surrogate/donor:

I had a hysterectomy at 21 due to adenomyosis. We have explored our options in depth and feel that adoption is not right for us at this point, and we very much desire our own biological children.

How would you best describe yourself(s):

How do you even begin describing yourself in the context of looking for someone to carry your child? We are a fairly laid-back couple - which is not to say we are not highly motivated when we need to be - just that I think we both choose our battles wisely and try not to stress about the little things.Alex is a mental health counselor with a master's from the University of Florida.I will graduate with my master's in nurse anesthesia from Georgetown this December.We have two goofy rescue dogs and have a wonderful little family as it is, but we very much want to add at least one child to make it complete! We have waited and waited for the time to be right to pursue a family and we are drawing near to that point.We enjoy cooking, watching movies, trying new restaurants and exploring the entertainment options in nearby DC.I make pottery in my limited spare time and I love to read...Alex loves movies and playing video games with his childhood buddies back home in Florida, and when we have the space he loves to build things for the house.Feel free to ask anything about us.I'm not really sure what else to say!

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

Hi, potential surrogate!

What an odd thing it is to think of asking another woman to carry your child for you.What do you even say? Well, thank you, for one.There will be much more to say, I'm sure, but that's a good place to start! I can't imagine doing what you're looking to do.So thank you for even being here, reading this.

So...there's a little bit about us above.Here's who are we looking for:

* Ideally, someone either within driving distance of DC or someone located near a major airport.We're lucky to have three major airports near us, which makes travel easy.

* Someone who has given a great deal of thought to the implications of gestational surrogacy and what it means for you and your family.We aren't spiritual people, but we are very thoughtful about how we interact with the world and how our actions impact others.We may not call you our angel or talk in flowery terms about the "journey" we're on, but we will be forever grateful and we will do our best to make sure you are well taken care of in return.

* Someone who is healthy.I'm not talking running marathons and doing yoga (if you enjoy these things, more power to you, though!).I just mean no smoking, no drugs, and abstaining from alcohol during the pregnancy.Eating vegetables once in a while is a plus.(Kidding, Please eat your veggies, surrogate or not.They're really good for you.) I am not as bothered about age or weight but I will leave those decisions up to our RE once we get there this fall.

* Someone with insurance who will cover the maternity costs.I wish we had unlimited financial resources, but we have large student loans and many years of grad school to recover from! (We know you have debts or less savings than you'd like too, and it's okay to say that surrogacy would help you pay for those things.) The issue is we simply would not be able to foot the medical bill if there were complications.Having insurance protects you more than us.We may be open to purchasing an insurance plan for our surrogate, but that would necessitate waiting until the *** open enrollment on the healthcare marketplace (which I believe is November - which would be a lot later than we'd hoped to start).

Our timeline: this year *** we are using our time while I finish my degree program to meet with a lawyer and get our plan made and possibly go ahead and make/freeze some embryos near the end of the year, depending on insurance.We're hoping that by mid to late *** we can transfer, so we'd like to start the process of screening, contracts, etc with someone in the spring of *** If this interests you, please contact us! We are not aggressively seeking someone right now because it is very early still, but we are absolutely open to talking to potential surrogates anytime!

Best wishes, Kristin and Alex