Rebecca Jarvis and son Leo.Photo:Greg Kessler/KesslerStudio
Greg Kessler/KesslerStudio
“When I pictured our family, I always thought of my family, the family I grew up with, as one of two kids,” Jarvis said onGMA, in a pre-taped segment. “My younger sister Lauren and I are incredibly close. We’re 18 months apart. And so as I thought about my future, our future, I always envisioned that we would have two. That we’d be a family of four.”
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Rebecca Jarvis, Matt Hanson with newborn son Leo and their daughter Isabel.Greg Kessler/KesslerStudio
The journalist explained that her journey to pregnancy hadn’t been easy, revealing that she’d experienced infertility and undergone several rounds of in vitro fertilization.
“Two years ago, we had just experienced another miscarriage in the IVF journey, and that catalyzed the search for another route,” Hanson said. “And so we had attempted to climb that mountain too many times unsuccessfully and determined that together we would try a different path.”
“I had just lost a pregnancy at five months. And we looked at our doctors and said, ‘What do we do? This keeps happening. And there’s no telling whether we can be successful … whether I can maintain a successful pregnancy.’ And our doctors said, ‘Surrogacy is your best path forward,’ " Jarvis recalled. “That was hard to hear.”
Rebecca Jarvis with son Leo and daughter Isabel.Greg Kessler/KesslerStudio
Though they were apprehensive about beginning the surrogacy journey, Jarvis said she and her husband talked a lot about the process and decided it was something they wanted to do.
“One of the things that we talked a lot about beforehand was whether or not another person … that could we even ask another person to do something like that, to do that with their body,” Jarvis shared. “And it was really through the process of talking to a lot of people, and then getting to know our angel, our surrogate, understanding that she considered this one of the greatest things she could do … one of the greatest gifts she could give the world.”
The segment included footage of the journalist outside her hotel before she left for the hospital to meet her son.
Describing the pain she felt after losing each pregnancy, Jarvis says that she was still “holding my breath” every single step of the way. “So even in the surrogacy, I really did hold my breath for a very long time,” she said, tearing up. “And I probably in some ways to protect myself and my family didn’t want to feel that massive excitement and that massive joy until I really felt that it was truly a sure thing. But when I did allow myself to feel that way, it was truly the best feeling.”
Jarvis and Hanson recall cutting their son’s umbilical cord, with Hanson saying it’s a moment he’ll “never forget.”
“Me too, the feeling. And also, the feeling of gratitude toward our surrogate and her family,” Jarvis said. “I just wanted to hug her and give her all of our love that we were also pouring over Leo because there’s no way this would’ve been possible without her.”
Elsewhere onGMA, the family of four all appeared via satellite to celebrate their big news. During that talk, Jarvis explained why she and her husband were so open about their story. “We wanted to give other families hope and make other people feel like they’re less alone on this path,” she said. “We were hoping that other people going through this would be able to feel a little less alone and that they have the resources to think about their journey forward as well.”
“Thank you for being so supportive, all of you,” she told her ABC News colleagues, includingMichael Strahan,Robin Roberts,George StephanopoulosandLara Spencer.
Good Morning Americaairs weekdays (beginning at 7 a.m. ET) on ABC.
source: people.com
