Idaho Surrogate Mom Still Caring for China Baby Nearly a Year Later

There is a lot of money in surrogacy. I seriously considered it about a decade ago before having my son. In my research and contemplation of holding another couples baby my mind never went to the possibility of carrying, delivering and then keeping the baby. That is not how surrogacy works, well at least not how it is supposed to work. For an Idaho woman, that is exactly what happened.

Emily Chrislip was a surrogate and carried a baby for a couple in China. She gave birth to the child last year but still has the little girl in her care, nearly nine months after giving birth. So what happened? Covid-19 happened... The biological parents have not been able to travel to the U.S. due to travel restrictions. They have only been able to see their 9-month-old daughter through FaceTime calls and pictures. So no, it was not like they changed their minds and didn't want the baby. Quite the opposite, they literally cant get to the child. Luckily the little girl is in great hands.

According to the Idaho State Journal, Emily said, “The biggest concern is the restrictions. I don’t think they’ll have a problem getting to the U.S., but getting back into Asia, they might have problems. So we’re trying to wait and see what happens with all the restrictions.”

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The original plan was for the biological parents to be there the same day as the babies birth to start caring for her right away but the pandemic altered plans quickly and for far longer than anyone anticipated. The current hope is that the biological parents will be able to take their daughter home before her first birthday in May.

Emily does admit that when the little girl does go home with her biological parents that there will be a hard adjustment. After all she carried her thru pregnancy, then cared for her for nearly her first year. I can only assume after all of this that the Chinese couple will let Emily still have a connection with the girl.