What Are the Intended Parents Screening Requirements in Colorado?
If you are thinking about becoming a gestational surrogate in Colorado, you may face many different questions. For example, you may be wondering whether or not surrogacy is the right path for you, what the surrogacy process looks like for you as a surrogate mother, and what it may look like for the intended parents you are matched with. Suppose you are feeling knowledgeable about your own legal, medical, and emotional process regarding becoming a surrogate mother. In that case, you may now wonder what it is like for intended parents.
If you or someone you know is interested in becoming a surrogate, please call or text us at 303-670-4673 (HOPE) or visit us at Adoption and Surrogacy Choices of Colorado.
What is the Role of Intended Parents?
A very exciting step of your surrogacy journey is when you are matched with an intended parent looking to have a child of their own. Before being matched, you all will go through various interviews to determine compatibility factors. An intended parent or parents can be an individual or couple having trouble conceiving a child on their own for various personal reasons. That’s where your responsibility and selfless decision come into play: to help carry a child for them to help them grow their family. Both you and the intended parents you are matched with will be connected because of maintaining the well-being of the child you carry. Intended parents have a variety of responsibilities throughout this process. This ranges from financial, personal, health, lifestyle, and parenting responsibilities during and after your pregnancy.
What is the Surrogacy Process for Intended Parents?
The surrogacy process for intended parents is parallel to yours. However, intended parents also have their own set of requirements to fulfill to be considered by Adoption and Surrogacy Choices of Colorado. Although the intended parent’s requirements may be less restrictive in some aspects than yours, they are also required to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone involved in this process. They must also go through required medical screenings, physical exams, and psychological tests to make sure intended parent(s) are healthy both physically and emotionally before proceeding.
Once everyone passes their respective exams, both you and the intended parents will meet with your attorneys to discuss legal paperwork. This is to make sure everyone is on the same page and knows their responsibilities. In addition, this is a good time to talk about compensation and make sure they know that you are not biologically related to the child you carry and therefore have no parental rights or claim through the IVF process.
After your attorneys meet, paperwork is settled, and everyone is on the same page, you will move on to the In Vitro Fertilization process. Once you become pregnant, it’s then nine months and then delivery! Throughout this time, you will attend various appointments for the pregnancy and could be accompanied by one or both of the intended parents you are matched with.
What Are Intended Parents Requirements?
Although you as a gestational carrier have your own surrogate requirements, intended parents have their own as well. This is done to ensure they are emotionally, physically, and financially ready to become parents. All couples or individuals considering surrogacy are required to fulfill certain requirements to ensure everyone’s physical and mental safety. Some requirements are as follows:
- Any intended parents or individual parent must be willing to complete a background check. This means neither partner can have a criminal record.
- The intended parent(s) must be financially secure and in a stable living arrangement. This is to ensure they are financially equipped to compensate you and provide a stable environment to bring their baby home.
- They must have a respectful attitude towards you and the surrogacy process in general. We understand how much time and your commitment surrogacy requires. That means making sure the intended parent(s) you are matched with are also appreciative and aware of your decision.
- They must have a general understanding of the gestational surrogacy process and what it entails.
- They must complete all their paperwork on time, whether legal or medical.
- They also must be willing to have open and honest conversations to ensure you are matched with intended parents who have the same values as you.
At Adoption and Surrogacy Choices of Colorado, we know that your choice to become a surrogate mother and for intended parents to choose surrogacy can be for so many different reasons. No matter what, we are committed to making sure you, as well as the intended parents you are matched with, are being taken care of throughout your surrogacy journey.
If you are interested in learning more about your gestational surrogacy options, contact Adoption and Surrogacy Choices of Colorado by email, phone, or text: Email Us, Text us: 720-371-1099, Call us: 303-670-4673 (HOPE). If you are hoping to adopt, please contact us here.
Meet the Author: Katie Doherty is a junior Writing, Literature, and Publishing major at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. She loves to write, read, and edit, whether it’s technical or creative writing. Although she enjoys writing poetry, narrative nonfiction, and fiction writing, she also loves to write on current political events, cultural trends, and research. She spends her free time listening to music, watching the Great British Bake Off, and learning how to crochet.
Stephanie joined the Adoption Choices family in 2014 as the Child Placement Supervisor. Her love for adoption began in first grade when she made friends with twins adopted from Vietnam. Her heart grew strong over the years for adopted children and ultimately led her to graduate school where she continued her focus to her dream of working in the adoption field. Stephanie earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver in 2001. Over the past 15 years, Stephanie has worked as a pregnancy counselor and as an adoptive parent counselor for foster care, international adoption and domestic adoption, writing hundreds of home studies for families, and helping build their forever families. Stephanie is married and has three boys ages 12, 9, and 5. Together with her family she enjoys riding bike, playing games, watching her three sons compete in their various sporting and musical activities and go on vacations.
Christy Ikeler, is our Executive Director and Birth Parent Director. Christy has been with Adoption Choices Team for 18 years, since opening the doors in 2002! Christy has a true passion for what she does and her true love is working with and helping each birth parent. Whether she is up all night on the phone talking with them, taking them to doctors appointments, out for their favorite treat, providing counseling or at the hospital during labor and delivery, Christy is very involved every step of the way. She has a contagious laugh and a spunky personality that our birth moms all can bond with and relate to. As an adoptive parent herself, adoption holds a very special place in her heart and she can relate on every level with both birth parents and adoptive parents. In her free time Christy loves spending time with her daughter, gardening, baking and taking vacations with her family. Christy is an excellent leader for our team at Adoption Choices and is truly one of a kind!! As Executive Director, Christy spends time with the staff, birth parents and adoptive families in order to ensure that the agency is running smoothly. She has placed a huge emphasis on community outreach and programs for birth parents. Christy loves the opportunity to lead the agency into a brighter future.
Ms. Mackenzie has built a successful counseling career over the past 20 years, supporting mothers and families, people of all ages and genders, students, community professionals and fellow clinicians. Liv values a diverse professional focus, including the entrepreneurial life of a sole proprietor, the evaluative process of certifying foster/adoptive homes, the insightful and mindful one-on-one one work with enthusiastic clients, and serving as an advocate for underserved populations. Liv is a Licensed Professional Counselor and holds a BA in Pre-Law and Economics from American University, an MA in Counseling from Adams University and a certificate in Human Resource Management from Villanova University. Away from work you will find Liv spending time in nature, biking to the farmer’s market and adventuring with her family.
Catherine A. Madsen, joined the Adoption Choices family as legal counsel in 2013. Catherine is responsible for providing legal guidance to the Agency, training and updating staff on developments in adoption law and legislation, and program development. Catherine
Virginia Frank is an adoption attorney accredited since 1991 with the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. Ms. Frank is a leader in the field of private adoption and has completed over 4,000 adoptions in her career. Ms. Frank has a law degree from Oklahoma City University and a BA in both Political Science and Communications from the University of Oklahoma.
Cassidie has been with Adoption Choices since 2015, she has her bachelors in Interdisciplinary Affairs with concentrations in both Sociology and Business Management. Cassidie has additional training in Victim Advocacy, foster care and has been working in women’s services for over 10 years. Cassidie has always had a heart for adoption and it was her career dream to work in adoption. She started off doing volunteer work for advocacy programs, adoption organizations and worked in High Risk Maternal Fetal Medicine through the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Colorado. Cassidie is also blessed to have personally experienced an adoption of her own in 2012, completing her family of five! Cassidie loves what she does as a case worker from initial phone calls, meetings, doctor appointments, interaction with the adoptive families to delivery and counseling. Cassidie has a passion for those in need and strives to help make a difference in the lives of the people she meets. She is a firm believer in being kind, compassionate and open minded in all situations. “Unless you’ve walked in their shoes, there’s no place for judgment. A kind word or compliment can go a long way!” The bittersweet moments in adoption reminds Cassidie each and every time, why she loves what she does!