Dear amazing stranger,

We would like to thank you for reading our story. We know that by opening this letter, you are considering doing something truly extraordinary for a couple you don’t know yet. We think it’s generous, brave and truly life-changing. Not just for us, but also for the child we hope to welcome into our lives.

We are Lars (32) and Mike (31), a couple from the Netherlands, living in Eindhoven in our home that has some space left for a special person. We have been together for over 10 years. Our story started out while we were attending the same engineering university, where we met coincidentally during our student life. Shortly after we met, the Christmas break started during which we texted… a lot. We had plans to grab lunch together when lectures would start again in January. But on New Year’s Eve while we were back home, we were again texting and decided to meet for a first coffee-date on New Year’s day. We couldn’t stop seeing each other. Soon Mike brought us to his favorite place, the theme park ‘the Efteling’ where our connection really clicked. Within two months we were boyfriends. Since then, we have shared so much life together. We both continued studying for a while, even living in the same student flat for a while. Meeting was as easy as taking the elevator.

This later changed into a year of surviving long-distance, when Mike studied in the warmth of the south of France and Lars was in the very cold Norway. We moved in together in an apartment during the early days of COVID, which finally and thankfully felt like a true home, being together. Two years ago, we bought our own house, and ever since, the dream of raising children there has felt more and more real.

We are different in many ways, but we fit well together. Lars works as a User Experience Designer (making apps easy to use) and is curious, thoughtful, and a little adventurous. He describes his job as complex puzzles which he loves to solve. After an on-and-off relationship with the gym, he is currently very into cycling on his race bike. Still on the bucket list, besides becoming a dad, is learning to scuba dive. He also goes all-out with Christmas decorations, which Mike accepts as part of the package.

Mike works as Assistant Air Traffic Controller and is caring, practical, and works out in the gym, likes to program on hobby apps, home improvement, escape rooms, cooking, being active in the local politics, and just generally not sitting still. He had some flying lessons in the past. Lars even joined a flight. Getting a small pilot license is definitely on his bucket list.

When we host Christmas, a six-course dinner is apparently the minimum. Together we love walking through our neighborhood after work to talk and catch up, going to the movies, trying new food, gaming, LEGO, traveling, city trips through Europe, skiing in the Alps, and dreaming about all the places we might one day show our child.

Becoming parents has always felt like a natural next chapter for us. As a gay couple, we know we need help to make that dream possible. That is a vulnerable thing to say out loud, but it is also at the heart of this journey: our family can only exist because of the kindness, trust, and generosity of others.

One of the most meaningful parts of our journey so far has been the love shown by Lars’ sister, Seline. When we were first exploring how we might become parents, we told our families that we had attended an info event in Amsterdam about expanding our family. Not long after, Seline and her husband Robert came to us with an offer that moved us deeply: she wanted to be our egg donor.

Seline and her husband, Robert, are parents themselves to our wonderful nieces, Zooey (4) and Lizzie (2). They told us that they know how beautiful it is to be parents, and that they wanted to help us experience that joy too. Seline felt that being both egg donor and Surrogate would be too much for her, but she is happy to help us in this very special way.

We will never be able to fully express how grateful we are to her. Because of Seline, our future child will carry a connection to both sides of our family, the baby’s aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. Our child would always be loved completely, no matter what, but this added connection feels incredibly special to us.

Now we are hoping to find the woman who might help us bring our child into the world. We see surrogacy as a relationship built on trust, respect, openness, and care. We would love to get to know you, and if you have a partner, family or friends involved, we would love to get to know them too. We imagine regular contact during the pregnancy: messages, video calls, sharing photos, checking in, laughing together, and most importantly helping out and being present for important moments in whatever way feels comfortable for you.

We expect we will be traveling to Canada a few times during the pregnancy. To help you and your family, and really experience the pregnancy first hand. Of course your privacy, space, health and wellbeing would always be incredibly important to us. You would be helping us fulfill our biggest dream, and we would want you to feel supported and appreciated throughout the entire journey. After the birth, we would love for you to remain part of our family’s story and meet our child when they’re older. We hope our child will grow up knowing they were born through so much love: with help from their aunt Seline, and a very special woman in Canada who carried them with love.

The gift of surrogacy is almost impossible to put into words. “Thank you” feels far too small. You would not only be helping us become parents; you would be changing the entire shape of our lives.

Thank you for considering us, for your openness, and for the possibility that you might walk beside us on this journey. Hopefully you learned a bit about us and we would be truly honored to get to know you, hear your story, and see whether this is a journey we might take together.

Love,

Lars & Mike