Surrogacy Agency Problems

Even though I searched what seemed like non-stop for a good agency to handle our surrogacy issues, we ended up with SurroGenesis, which seemed like a good idea at the time. SurroGenesis was run by former surrogates who seemingly knew how to run a surrogate agency.

We contacted Ann Robinson and she seemed to really care about us. We got the ball rolling, spoke on the phone with first Carrie, our egg donor, and then Julie, our gestational surrogate. In most cases, the egg donor is kept private but Carrie wanted to know us and we wanted to know her. We are so glad that we got to meet and will always be a part of each other's families.

Everything went as planned until Ann mentioned that we had to put money into a trust account through Michael Charles Holding Company which, as we assumed, was a bank that would write checks to whomever needed payment for whatever needed payment for. We were against this and wanted to handle the money part ourselves. No go. Put money with Michael Charles or no baby. Kind of harsh when the end product is something you have wanted and have not been able to achieve yourselves.

Ann and SurroGenesis were very attentive to our needs through most of the pregnancy. Then in January we didn't get as many update calls but we were so wrapped up in the pregnancy we didn't really seem to mind or care. Then Julie mentioned she had not gotten paid. Then, at the hospital right after Emily's birth, the hospital billing department called and told Julie that her insurance had been cancelled. We just wrote this up to another SurroGenesis problem; Julie called her representative and insurance was reinstated.

Now we find out SurroGenesis was kind of a Ponzi scam and Tonya Collins and Ann Robinson were in this together and stole all of the money. According to the Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-surrogate-agency21-2009mar21,0,3918452.story

Very disturbing.

Hopefully everything will resolve itself - with the intervention of lawyers - and our money will be returned.

All we can say is Thank God we have Emily!