One couple’s journey to parenthood and the creation of “Sunshine Surrogacy”
BY MARK ARIEL | PHOTO BY JOHN JACK GALLAGHER
Becoming a parent is really a life-changing experience and we have not regretted it for a single second,” says Leo Cheng, the owner of Sunshine Surrogacy, in an interview with THE FIGHT.
Born in China, Cheng grew up in Germany. He trained to be an architect and worked for a while in the interior design business.
His husband, Michael Ahrens, works in the German Foreign Service. Ahrens was born and raised in Germany, however the two met for the first time in China.
“We actually met in Shanghai,” reveals Cheng. “I was organizing the opening of a design gallery by an English-Chinese artist and Michael was the plus one of one of my clients who is also German and with whom he worked.”
“This all happened 19 years ago,” confides Ahrens. “My colleague who brought me to that evening is still one of our best friends. Believe it or not, one other colleague of mine who came along met her husband at the same event as well. The stars must have been aligned for love that night!”
The couple discussed starting family for quite some time, however “we didn’t really know how as there were a lot of legal hurdles in Germany for same-sex couples to become parents at that time,” says Cheng.
“During that time in our lives we lived in San Francisco. We met other couples who became parents through surrogacy, which was the first time we actively looked into that possibility. That was more than 10 years ago.”
“Make sure you thoroughly vet everyone you work with, be it an agency or privately. The process involves a lot of trust and trust should be mutually built.”
“After our stay in San Francisco – my work brought us to South Korea and then we went back to Germany,” reveals Ahrens. “We looked more into surrogacy, but not living in the US seemed to add extra obstacles to becoming parents. Also being from Germany we had to consider how to make sure that our child will be recognized as our child. Finally there was a Court Order of the highest German Civil Court that provided legal clarity for surrogacy journeys in California. From that moment it was clear that we would want to become parents in California.”
“We wanted to be close to California when the surrogacy journey started,” explains Cheng. “So we started looking into the perfect Asian/Caucasian mixed egg donor which took a while. We created embryos through IVF and froze them. Then in 2019 the opportunity came for both of us to live and work in the US and we quickly starting searching for a gestational carrier. We were fortunate that everything worked like a charm, our surrogate became pregnant after the first try with LA IVF (www.laivfclinic.com) and 9 months later Ella Mae was born!”
When asked why he decided to create “Sunshine Surrogacy,” Cheng explains: “When we were back in Berlin in 2017, I did more research on the surrogacy process and surrogacy agencies. Not really with the goal of starting my own agency but more for our private journey. Then one thing led to another… I had more and more gay friends I knew from China who were interested in becoming parents through surrogacy and one of them suggested I start a surrogacy agency. I really thought I would only do it to learn more about surrogacy but then I felt it very rewarding to help people start a family. Very stressful at the same time, because this is nature and a biological process and everybody has to be aware that there cannot be a 100% control over what is going to happen.”
If you are considering building a family—Cheng suggests talking to other LGBTQ couples who have been through the process. “Make sure you thoroughly vet everyone you work with, be it an agency or privately. Don’t rush and take your time to find the right donor and surrogate. The process involves a lot of trust and trust should be mutually built. I always felt it was reassuring to know that you have an agency that has your back and you don’t have to tackle questions during the surrogacy journey that you have never heard about yourself. But then I might be biased.”
For more info visit www.sunshinesurrogacy.com.
