When Emily Chrislip of Idaho decided to become a gestational surrogate for a Beijing couple she agreed to carry the child until its birth.
She didn’t agree to care for the child after it was born but that’s exactly what she did anyway.
Chrislip even had the option to place the child with a nanny agency after the coronavirus pandemic created travel restrictions to and from China preventing the parents from picking up their newborn child.
But Chrislip wouldn’t have that. Instead, the 25-year-old who has been married for three years and is the mother of a 2-year-old son has been caring for the child as if it was her own ever since.
And there’s no telling how long that child will remain with her due to the pandemic.
“At first, we thought it would be a max four weeks, and then it kept getting longer and longer,” Chrislip told PEOPLE.
“At this point, we’ve just accepted that we don’t know. But we wouldn’t have it any other way. She is so loved and right now. We are the constant in her life.”
Gestational Carrier vs. Surrogate – A gestational carrier is a woman who carries a pregnancy for another. A surrogate is a woman who donates her egg and carries a pregnancy for another.
Posted by American Society for Reproductive Medicine onThursday, August 21, 2014
Many are calling her actions saintly, especially since this year has been such a trying time for so many families.
“It is amazing what they are doing,” Brooke Christensen, Chrislip’s younger sister, said. “I feel like everyone is pretty stressed in general as a society and as a country and my sister and brother-in-law have their own struggles.”
A gestational surrogate has no genetic ties to the child. That's because it wasn't her egg that was used. #GestationalSurrogacy
Posted by Apollo Hospitals onThursday, April 2, 2015
“But they realize that these poor parents can’t even get to their baby. She could have taken the easy road out and had the surrogate agency come and pick her up.”
But Chrislip says she’s just doing what she would hope another would do for her.
“We tried to put ourselves in the parents’ shoes. If it was our child, what would we want for our baby? If we ever had to use a surrogate, we hope that she would be willing to take care of our baby.”
Chrislip decided to become a surrogate after experiencing the joy of motherhood with the birth of her first son.
That’s when she knew that she wanted to be able to give this gift to other mothers who couldn’t give birth on their own.
Her husband Brandon was 100 percent supportive of her decision, so the Chrislips decided to start researching surrogacy agencies.
“I have watched family members and friends struggle with infertility and trying to get pregnant and my husband and I were blessed to have no trouble ourselves,” Emily said. “I could not imagine not being able to have my own biological child, and my pregnancy and delivery were very easy and uncomplicated, so we decided to start looking into it.”
The original plan was for the parents to arrive before the baby’s birth in mid-May and to be in the delivery room during the birth.
After the birth, Chrislip would recover in her hospital room while the baby stayed with her biological parents in their own hospital room.
So, Chrislip wasn’t too surprised when the biological parents personally asked if the Chrislips would care for their child after the pandemic hit.
She says it’s bittersweet knowing that after months of bonding they will have to give the baby to her biological parents.
“I think that it has been easier for me than Brandon. He loves babies and kids and is a big softy,” she said.
“I try to keep some of my barriers up, but I don’t know about Brandon. We definitely love her and will always care for her but we understand she is not ours. We just treat her as our own because at this stage in life it is so important to have the proper attention and love.”
Learn more about Chrislip’s story in the video below.
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