While this website was built partially with AI, the letter is fully written by me, Andrew (officially Andrii) Khodonovych, a 31-year-old owner of a surrogacy agency based in Kyiv, Ukraine.
I dropped out of medical university and started a medical tourism business in Ukraine between 2020 and 2022 in the fields of dentistry and plastic surgery. Then I moved into the surrogacy field because it was a more profitable business.
Exactly one month before the start of Russia's full invasion of Ukraine, I organised my first embryo transfer for a wonderful couple from Croatia. It was their only embryo. On the day the invasion began, we received a heartbeat detection on ultrasound. For us, this great news was more important than any war in the world. Then I quickly arranged for her transfer to Lviv, the westernmost city of Ukraine, where she gave birth to a healthy boy (2.8 kg) who is now almost 4 years old.
Basically, all my surrogacy expertise is "wartime expertise." Fortunately, thanks to the Ukrainian army and international support, the Russians have been stopped in the east, and we can live almost normally in our cities despite occasional attacks on power stations and other infrastructure.
This year, I applied to the theology faculty, where I plan to earn a bachelor's degree and defend surrogacy in the Catholic Church (Protestants allow surrogacy, but Catholics forbid it), because this topic is very important to me — it's part of my professional life and personal ethics.
What I like most about my work is meeting healthy newborns. What I hate most are pregnancy complications that cannot be treated. One of "my" babies was born prematurely at 33 weeks of pregnancy and spent 2 weeks in the NICU — those were the worst weeks of my life, though her condition was not dangerous. Luckily, she is now growing up in Northern Ireland (UK), as the first baby of her parents.
I rarely see the happy beginnings of a surrogacy journey, and I doubt I ever will. Unfortunately, couples come to surrogacy from difficult situations — infertility is usually part of it. A big part of a long, unsuccessful battle…
Any healthy, fertile woman can help. My task is to find one who is not only fully healthy — which is, of course, a must — but also a kind human being: someone I could trust to carry my own baby if it were needed, someone with whom I can build a warm, supportive relationship during pregnancy and a friendship after. The same applies to Intended Parents.
One of our coordinators was a three-time surrogate mother, and one of our Intended Parents, Oliver Cibi, became our representative in Australia. You can speak with him.
I always say: I am not selling expensive cars — I am creating a connection between Intended Parents and a Surrogate Mother to help create a deeply desired new life. I am very proud of our small team. Although we have had embryo transfer failures and sometimes a longer waiting list than expected, we have never had any cases of harm to babies, apart from one girl who, with proper care, is now growing up as a typical healthy baby — crying and smiling.
And I'll be happy to serve you, my dear Intended Parents, and help bring a healthy baby to your family. Hopefully with a short waiting time and from the very first embryo transfer attempt.
Andrew