u/FOXN1

We are IPs from California and have been on the journey looking for GCs since last December. We recently came across a nice experienced surrogate from Texas who enjoyed meeting with us on the match meeting hosted by the surrogate’s agency named “Everbloom Fertility Solutions”. After the match meeting, the agency reached out to us and happily informed us that the surrogate wants to help us.

We were so happy and grateful until we saw the cost estimate presented by the agency. The surrogate is only getting a total compensation package of $87,000 (base, bonus plus all the allowances etc.), however the agency wants $60,000 agency fee, $8000 pregnancy management fee, $2000 for background check and almost $2000 for managing the escrow account. Essentially the agency wants over $68,000 just for agency fee alone, which drives the total estimate goes up to $190,000. On top of this, we still need to pay additional to cover IP’s own attorney fee.

Since the agency fee is much higher than all the other American agencies we spoke with (usually $35,000-50,000), we were hopeful that the agency could just drop the price a little bit as a sympathy since we have reached our budget limit after already spending over $100,000 for IVF and $15,000 retainer fee with another agency.

We underestimated how cold hearted the agency lady was. She wouldn’t offer any discount and showed zero sympathy or interest in helping us. She simply wants the highest bidder instead of finding the perfect match for surrogates and IPs. Honestly, we could meet her budget if we try to squeeze our finance, use credit cards or taking a loan, but all what we were looking for is a signal that this is a genuine and caring agency. If she offered $5000 discount, we would have been convinced and get onto a happy journey with this agency. But it did not happen.

The lady at this agency who we spoke with is the owner who is Chinese. It seems that this agency has been focusing on rich clients from China since the surrogate indicates she wants to be matched with a family in the US this time. It is just insane that we hardworking, tax-paying American families get outbid by rich Chinese clients that this agency presents to kind American surrogates.

We are very disappointed about our interaction with this agency. Ironically, this happened on the Mother’s Day when we thought we finally found our surrogate match. We really like the surrogate who wants to match with us. If she was with an agency asking for reasonable agency fee, we would be happily matched with her already. In fact, we would prefer to pay the surrogate lady more instead of the ridiculously high agency fee that this Chinese agency asked for.

We are really grateful for all the surrogate angels here. We decided to share our experience with this Chinese agency because it is heartbreaking and insane that some greedy Chinese middleman stands in between American IPs and GCs to make money and not care about finding both parties the best match.

Does anyone happen to know whether Ohio has ACA plans that cover surrogacy without liens? Thanks!