(NewsNation) — A nonprofit organization with volunteers around the globe is helping parents bring home their babies who were born to surrogates in Ukraine, even while facing dangerous journeys and situations.
Sam Everingham, founder and global director of Growing Families, said what the group has been faced with right now in Ukraine since the war began last month is “incredibly complicated.”
“We’re the only not-for-profit in the space to offer support,” he said. Growing Families estimates there are still over 900 Ukrainian surrogates pregnant with babies intended to be raised by people overseas.
As someone who had children via surrogacy himself, 11 years ago, Everingham knows the pain and worry that comes with it.
“Our babies came very early pre-term, and we’ve got a number of babies in hospitals in Ukraine right now who are preterm who need ambulance evacuations,” Everingham said. “I know just how hard it is. And it’s great to be able to help these families reunite with their kids, like we were almost a decade ago.”
Recently, Growing Families had to come to the aid of a Denver couple who had a Ukrainian surrogate carry their child. When trying to get baby Evelyn, born days after the Russia-Ukraine war started, to the U.S. from Kyiv, Allison and Byron, who asked their last names not be used, were stopped at the Polish border, only to be held at gunpoint and accused of kidnapping her.
“It was terrifying,” Allison said on NewsNation’s “Morning in America” earlier this week. “Instead of calling the police and having us escorted to jail, they pretty much said go back to Ukraine and just left us on the street.”
“We have had some couples like Byron and his wife come back to us to say, look, we do need help,” Everingham said. “Unfortunately, given foreign governments aren’t entering Ukraine, we’ve had to step in, as a (non-governmental organization) and with our partners, to organize those evacuations, and particularly, to organize the paperwork to get these children across borders without a birth certificate.”
Eventually, with the help of embassies and organizations like Growing Families, Allison, Byron and Evelyn were able to get safely to Poland.
“She’s a dream. She’s absolutely wonderful,” Allison said of her daughter. “She’s just perfect. We could not be happier.”
Making sure the paperwork was done correctly and that couples have all the documents border authorities need can take days, Everingham said.
“With Byron and his wife Allison, it did take some time, but we’re doing it, day after day,” Everingham said.
Growing Families has had help evacuating parents and their newborns from charities on the Polish border, and their many volunteers. They use WhatsApp groups to coordinate, Everingham said. Modern technology, and having staff in many different time zones, has been a boon for the group, he added.
“We could tell them, this is a border crossing you need to be at, we’ve got a nanny who’s going to bring your baby to a safe house outside Kyiv,” Everingham said.
From there, once curfews in Ukraine, put in place after the invasion, lift, Growing Families takes the baby to the border to meet their parents.
“It’s hard,” Everingham said. “But look, in the end, we’re getting most of those babies out.”
