18th August 2014 | by MFC Team
Community shows support for gay dads
After worrying that he wouldn’t be able to become a parent because he was gay, Justin Mallard and his partner Brett Rancourt, have been touched by the support shown by their British Columbian community, and hope that sharing their story inspires and give hope to other gay couples who dream of having a family. Mallard and Rancourt recently became parents to twins, through egg donation and surrogacy. In Canada, third party donation (donor eggs, donor sperm, and surrogacy) must be altruistic, meaning that donors and surrogates cannot be paid for their assistance. This leaves Canadians with the often difficult task of finding someone willing to be a donor and/or surrogate for free, or undertaking the significant financial costs and risks of going out of country for these services.
Concerned that they wouldn’t be able to afford to pay for an egg donor from the United States, the couple were touched when Raylene Bussinger, Mallard’s co-worker and mother of three children, offered to be their surrogate, and her best friend, Lisa Wooldridge, offered to be their egg donor. Despite some hiccups along the way, thanks to Bussinger and Woolridge’s generous assistance, the couple are now happy parents to Jordyn and Sawyer, who were born six-weeks premature by caesarean section. One of the babies is Mallard’s genetic offspring, and one is Rancourt’s.
Despite concerns that their new family would not be accepted by the members of their very traditional community, Mallard and Rancourt have been touched by the way they, and their children, have been embraced by their family members, friends, and neighbours. They created the blog “Love and Science – Our Modern Family” as a gift to their children, detailing the love and support of the two women who helped make their parenthood dreams come true, and the community that is supporting their non-traditional family. They expressed their thanks and gratitude on their blog:
“To all our amazing supporters, from the bottom of our hearts you have forever impacted our lives in such a beautiful way. We have received hundreds of messages of well wishes of support and have been stopped on the street and in stores to further share their heartfelt appreciation of our story and to let us know they support and welcome us. You have all warmed our heart and this really shows that Chilliwack is our home and we are loved and welcomed.”
You can read Justin and Brett’s blog here.
Read the article here.
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