Jörg Thornton

To our future surrogate:

We have already spent a great deal of time thinking about what it will be like when we find each other. The way surrogacy exists in Canada is so new to us that we have once again realized how different Europe and Austria are in this regard. In the process we came to understand how many aspects we had never even considered because of our own socialization - simply because surrogacy does not exist where we come from.

At first, it would never have occurred to us that surrogacy could be experienced in such a diverse way or that a relationship with you could continue beyond the pregnancy. We have already learned a great deal and therefore we do not want to impose our own views and ideas on you. This means that we are very open to different possibilities regarding how you imagine this journey, what makes you feel comfortable and how this relationship might develop.

We still have no real idea how we can best support you considering that half the world lies between us and that - because of the different time zones - we will likely be asleep for half of the time. Of course we will be available to you through text messages, phone calls and video calls. We want to know how you are doing and get to know you better.

Even though there is still much we do not know, even though we will make mistakes and discover together what works best for all of us, we can already say that we value you tremendously. Regardless of how our relationship develops we know that you will be an incredibly important part of our family history, of our child’s life story and of the tales of how we were able to become a rainbow family with children of our own.

You are very welcome in our lives and in our home. We look forward to hearing from you, learning who you are and understanding what you need in order to feel as supported by us as possible.

We are looking for a surrogate who may be new to surrogacy or already experienced. More than anything, we hope to find someone who is balanced, reliable, grounded, open-minded, pragmatic, warm-hearted and able to navigate a pregnancy confidently even with geographical distance. A good sense of humor and a positive outlook on life would mean a lot to us as well.

We are looking for someone to support us in our family‘s growth and with whom we can walk this path together.

From our perspective, this is a highly sensitive issue. If only because, as two men, we are dealing with a deeply personal matter concerning a woman and her body.

Given the serious medical, psychological and social aspects and circumstances involved, we fundamentally support the option of - and the right to - abortion.

You never know what life has in store; no one is immune to crises, illness or accidents. However, considering our personal history as well as our experiences in daily life and our careers (such as working with people with disabilities or children from challenging backgrounds), we want our family life with a child to begin on a positive and healthy note.