For most of us, a gym partner is someone who is always reliable and can keep us excited to start and motivated to push on during tough workouts.
But for Brooke Smith-Sanders, her gym buddy became so much more than that when she volunteered to carry Brooke’s child.
Brooke was born without a uterus, which was first discovered when she was 17. With the understanding that she would never carry a child, she and her husband Walt Sanders went straight for IVF with a surrogate when they were ready to have kids.
They started attempting the surrogacy in 2018 but it fell through at the last minute when the local woman discovered she was already pregnant, and then again after a lab accident resulted in all of Brooke’s eggs dying after being exposed to carbon dioxide.
“It was such a heartbreaking disappointment because we had finally got to the point of starting and it just fell apart,” said Smith-Sanders.
That’s when Brooke’s CrossFit buddy Dawn Crawley agreed to become their surrogate instead, even at the age of 47.
The third time was lucky, and Crawley became pregnant with eventual twins Maverick and Shepherd.
Brooke said they feel “so blessed” and want to share their story to give other families hope when going through infertility.
“I am adopted—someone gave me a chance from birth,” said Crawley. “I wanted to repay that any way that I could. Something just said to me ‘I need to help them.’ Knowing that I was able to help them makes me so happy, not just for the parents, for those babies too.”
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The daughter Maverick and son Shepherd were born on November 1st, and were small but healthy as a result of pre-eclampsia which saw Dawn rushed to the hospital a month early and the twins staying in the NICU for three weeks with oxygen and feeding tubes until they were strong enough to go home.
Brooke said that the process was at many times difficult, as will be the case for almost any couple seeking to conceive via IVF.
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“For a long time I was sad I couldn’t carry them, but I did my part to bring them into this world,” said Brooke, who added that anyone going through what she went through should seek guidance and advice as early on as possible.
She feels blessed to have two 4-year-old reminders every day that it was all worth it.
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