Denver Couple Rescues Baby Born via Ukrainian Surrogate in War-torn Ukraine

Building a family is never easy. That is certainly the case for a Denver couple who had to travel to the war zone in Ukraine to rescue their baby, who was born via a Ukrainian surrogate. Allison and Byron told their story to the Denver Post on the condition that their last names be withheld for privacy and safety concerns.

The family of three are now in Poland recovering after the dangerous trip, which saw them at one point being accused of kidnapping their own newborn baby at the Polish border. All is well now for the couple, who are just awaiting baby Evelyn's passport before returning to the United States.

Byron and Allison got married in 2016, and neither one of them had plans to have any children. Allison did donate her eggs multiple times in the past, just in case her stance on motherhood changed. That happened a little more than a year ago when Allison was unexpectedly struck with baby fever. 

Allison and Byron chooses Ukrainian surrogate to carry their baby

The Denver-based couple knew fertility would be difficult for them, so they began investigating surrogacy options and in vitro fertilization. The couple's financial constraints led them to choose a Ukrainian surrogate instead to carry their first-born child.

According to the Daily Mail, the surrogacy process costs around $55,000 in Ukraine. Costs rise to around $60,000 if the couple uses a donor sperm or egg. That is still cheaper than surrogacy services in the United States which can range from around $100,000 to $200,000.

Allison said they put a lot of thought into the repercussions of doing the pregnancy abroad with a Ukrainian surrogate. Allison added that they wanted to make sure these women were doing this by choice, and they were not being coerced or forced to become a surrogate. They also did all the due diligence to ensure their payments were going to the woman who would be their surrogate.

Allison and Byron went to Ukraine twice to undergo two in vitro fertilization cycles. The couple loved the country's culture and its capital city of Kyiv. When news of Russia potentially invading Ukraine began to surface earlier this year, Byron and Allison admitted that they felt helpless as they knew they could do nothing for their Ukrainian surrogate, who had to take care of her own family and had no passport to escape the country.

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Denver couple accused of kidnapping their own daughter at the border

Baby Evelyn was born in a basement bomb shelter of a Kyiv hospital on March 7, almost two weeks after Russia began its military invasion of Ukraine. The agency Allison and Byron used for surrogacy organized a nanny to care for their baby. Allison said she found a surrogacy-related organization called Growing Families that sent a driver to Kyiv to pick up Evelyn and her nanny and drive them back to the Polish border.

Allison and Byron crossed over to Ukraine to pick up Evelyn, but when they tried to return to Poland, they were accused of kidnapping their own child by the border guards. They tried to show the paperwork to the guards to prove that they were the baby's parents, but the language barrier and the tension in the Poland-Ukraine border proved difficult to overcome.

They were detained for about 12 hours before the guards eventually let the family through. According to the United Nations, 1,975,449 refugees have crossed over to Poland from Ukraine since the conflict started. The huge number of people seeking refuge in Poland makes the situation on the border so difficult, which Allison and Byron experienced firsthand.

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