We met in 2004, and we actively started the process of having children in 2009 – although we did get a cat first! One day we sat down and started talking about children, and realised it was something we both wanted. We started investigating and looking at what options we had. Marcus comes from a very small family, and so there was a desire there to have kids of his own. We chose surrogacy.
In 2010, both adoption and surrogacy were considerably more difficult than they are now, five years on. Having your child by surrogacy in the U.S. was – and still is – the safest option legally, because the law in the UK is very clear that the surrogate mother mustn’t benefit from the process, aside from expenses; but crucially, it is also clear that the surrogate mother has rights to keep the child after birth, unless she decides to waive those rights.