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Tuesday, 01 December 2020 13:27

How a Texas couple claimed their baby from Ukraine despite the coronavirus lockdown

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One cannot bear children, another needs money for her own family. A look at the joy and heartbreak of surrogate motherhood.

 It took the Straubs more than three days to travel from Dallas to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. But, arduous as it was, to them the trip was worth it.

A baby was waiting for them in Kyiv. Their baby. Waiting to come home.

Whether the Straubs would be able to enter Ukraine — or would be stopped by travel restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus — they did not know. Already, reports had emerged of parents traveling to Ukraine to pick up babies born to surrogate mothers, as the Straubs were doing, but being turned away at the border, leaving as many as 100 infants in legal limbo.

Still, the Straubs persisted.

“Usually, we would just take a plane to Paris and fly straight to Kyiv from there,” Darlene Straub said. But that was before various countries — Ukraine included — imposed travel restrictions related to COVID-19.

Instead, the Straubs — Darlene, 45, and her husband, Chris, who is 43 — hopscotched from Dallas to Atlanta, then on to the Netherlands, Sweden and Belarus. From Minsk, the Belarussian capital, they took a four-hour ride to the Belarussian border with Ukraine.

Then, because only trucks were being allowed across the border, they had to walk, carrying suitcases stuffed with $14,000 in cash to pay for the surrogate mother.

As the Straubs wended their way across Europe toward Kyiv, a 33-year-old Ukrainian woman named Yulia was nearing the end of a difficult journey of her own.

Yulia was already the mother of two sons, 8 and 13 years old. Her family lived in a village in central Ukraine. Her children were left with her husband four weeks earlier when she came to Kyiv to give birth.

As it happened, the timing worked out well. Yulia’s due date had been May 30. But the baby arrived four days early, on May 26 — just as the Straubs were crossing the border into Ukraine.

“We arrived in Kyiv on May 26. That same day, we got an email from our agency, and they said our baby girl was born,” Darlene Straub said.

“Oh,” she added, happily, “her name is Sophia Faith Straub.”

The Straubs are by no means the only ones to have made the difficult journey to Kyiv. Due to travel restrictions the Ukrainian government imposed in March, dozens of other prospective parents from all over the world remain separated from their babies, who have already been born to Ukrainian surrogate mothers.

Ukraine is one of the few countries where commercial surrogacy is still legal. In recent years, this shortage of surrogate agencies has driven hundreds of couples who cannot conceive to turn to surrogates in Ukraine to have their children for them. Here, people can use surrogacy for $30,000 to $50,000.

The pregnancy is created using the father’s sperm and a donor egg: The baby’s DNA must match that of at least one of the parents.

The surrogate mother gets $15,000, plus $400 in monthly support during her pregnancy. The surrogacy agency or clinic takes the rest of the money.

During the COVID-19 quarantine, which began in mid-March, some 100 newborns were left in limbo, waiting with their surrogate mothers in a hotel in Kyiv for a chance to go home with their permanent families. While parents like the Straubs were trying to make their way across closed borders, other parents wound up stuck in Ukraine, unable to go back home.

On April 30, one of Ukraine’s surrogacy clinics published a video of 51 babies crying in a large room in the hotel to draw attention to the problem.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry was ignoring parents’ requests for entry, said Albert Tochilovskyi, the clinic’s owner. The Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman, Lyudmila Denisova, promised to speed up the process of entry for parents, asking them to send special requests to her and to cooperate closely with the embassies of their home countries.

Since the Ukrainian borders closed March 17, the embassy has facilitated the travel of seven U.S. families to be with their newborn children and helped four more U.S. families with eight newborns to get home, an embassy spokesperson told NBC News.

“We have been in regular communication with a number of American parents anxiously awaiting the birth of their children due to be born to surrogates in Ukraine, and we are closely monitoring the situation,” the spokesperson said.

And early on May 30, two dozen parents of children who had been stranded in the hotel arrived in Ukraine on a special flight from Argentina.

The Straubs said the U.S. embassy in Kyiv helped them a great deal. For them, this trip marked the beginning of their life as a family.

But for Yulia, it marked an end. Her journey began in September, when she was impregnated in vitro using an egg that had been fertilized by Straub’s sperm.

Indeed, many people shame surrogate mothers, saying they sell children for money. Different Ukrainian officials, including children’s ombudsman Mykola Kuleba, have publicly called for the procedure to be banned, calling it a “baby trade.”

Yulia said she did not view it that way.

“I can have children, but I can’t provide for them,” she said. “Those people have money, but they can’t have children. So I think we help each other.”

On May 30, she visited the Straubs in their rented apartment in central Kyiv. She wanted to help them with the baby, and the Straubs allowed her to do that. She and the Straubs fed the baby girl together.

“It was really hard for me to involve another woman in this,” Darlene Straub said. “But my mom said I should see her as a friend for life.”

Then Yulia signed away her parental rights. On June 1, she got her money. The next day, she finally went home again.

The Straubs, however, must undergo two weeks of self-isolation in Kyiv before the government finalizes their documents and lets the family — composed of three people now, instead of two — go home to Texas.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com

 

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I am very satisfied with the medical services. Coordinator Lyubov was always in touch, answered any questions quickly and clearly, and helped in any difficult situations. The level of personal support and genuine concern for my health and well-being was 100 percent. I am very pleased that I am going through the surrogacy program with this agency. I feel protected and confident. I really like the attitude of the agency, timely payments, and the curator and manager make sure that pregnant girl...
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Olga T.
I am very pleased to meet such beautiful and kind people Hello everyone, I'm Myroslava and I'm going through my SM program at the Delivering Dreams agency. I want to express a big thank you to the girls who cooperate with me, who worry about my condition, who are always in touch, and who always support me - Omelchuk Lyubov and Anna Levchenko. I've already been to a program and therefore I have something to compare it with, this agency and the staff are at the highest level. And also the doct...
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Myroslava
Hallo Oksana,  vielen Dank für Deine ausführliche Erklärung. Wir haben alles gut verstanden. Das zeichnet due Arbeit von Euch und Eurem Ärzteteam aus. So kann man gut vertrauen. Hello Oksana, Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. We understood everything well. This is what distinguishes the work of you and your medical team. This is a good way to trust.
German couple
One of the best teams and my program! Hello! I want to share my experience and my impression of my program, one of the best programs, and the team from the Delivering Dreams Agency! Great attitude, attentive staff, responsible! Always in touch 24/7! Lyubov Omelchuk is a wonderful person, she was with me from the first minute of implantation until the end of the entire program! I am grateful that Lyubov was always with me! People of their word! Staff who never let you down! I highly recommend...
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Anna Priazhnikova
DD is outstanding We have just returned home to California with our beautiful daughter who was born in Lviv. The Delivering Dreams team made our trip so easy and straightforward. From our arrival to Ukraine to our departure, they had everything covered. The constant communication from the team is amazing. All of our paperwork for the embassy was properly prepared and organized. I cannot recommend them enough, we are even thinking about having another baby with DD!
Andrey Frenkel
Thank you very much Dear Oksana, Thank you very much for the great news. We still can't believe it and are totally speechless. The work you do under these difficult conditions cannot be put into words. Thank you very much for that. Liebe Oksana, vielen Dank für die super schöne Neuigkeit. Wir können es noch gar nicht glauben und sind total sprachlos. Was Ihr für eine Arbeit leistet, unter den schweren Bedingungen,  kann man nicht in Worte fassen. Vielen herzlichen Dank dafür.
Couple from Germany
Very friendly, pleasant team I am very grateful to the international surrogacy agency Delivering Dreams for such a short period of experience that dispelled all doubts and the remains of incomprehensible questions that were before and during this program, but I had a wonderful curator Lyuba who did not leave me for a second even on distances?❤️ This is how experienced, pleasant, kind woman you want to go to the program at least immediately after finishing the first one! Very friendly, pleasa...
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Angelina
Thank you for the wonderful experience and the opportunity to help future parents. I also want to thank Lyubov Omelchuk (Delivering Dreams) for her kindness and empathy, she was always in touch throughout the program, especially since the rehabilitation course is based on the supervision and advice of the curator. My worries about the procedure were in vain because everything went perfectly, thanks to the 24/7 support of the curator and qualified doctors Дякую за чудовий досвід, та змогу...
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Angelina
I recommend this agency. I was a surrogate mother in this agency, I really liked everything. The doctors treated me well and explained everything clearly. Curator Lyuba and Anya are always in touch and answer all questions, always supporting. I recommend this agency. Я була сур мама в цьому агентство, мені все дуже сподобалося лікарі гарно відносяться, розповідають все доступно. Куратор Люба і Аня завжди на зв'язку і відповідать на всі запитання, завжди підтримують. Рекомендую це агентство.
Yuliia
Thank you very much for worrying about me.  I really want to start the program at Delivery Dreams agency. The doctors here are extraordinary. Coordinator Lyubov is also extraordinary, always in touch and worries about me. After the hysteroscopy, Lyubochka is on the phone with me 24/7. Thank you very much for worrying about me. I hope that my program will start soon and I will present the baby to the biological parents. Thank you for being there!?? Я дуже хочу почати програму в агенстві De...
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Nastya

Under Ukrainian law, surrogacy is a legal affordable option for traditionally married couples to have children using their own embryos, or with either an egg or sperm donor. There must be a medical reason you can’t carry a child. You are also able to participate if you have had 4 unsuccessful IVF attempts.

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Under Ukrainian law, surrogacy is a legal affordable option for traditionally married couples to have children using their own embryos, or with either an egg or sperm donor. There must be a medical reason you can’t carry a child. You are also able to participate if you have had 4 unsuccessful IVF attempts.