The couple's situation highlights the challenges of pursuing surrogacy in Mexico.
A couple from New Jersey, Sam and Laura Kaitz are trying to bring their baby home. The couple in an interaction with The Washington Post talked about their experience using a surrogacy broker and an agency to welcome their baby boy, Simon George Kaitz.
The couple told the media outlet that they thought they were "doing things the right way" when they hired a surrogacy broker.
The couple decided to explore surrogacy options outside of the United States because of costs. Laura Kaitz wanted to have a child with Sam Kaitz but pregnancy was not medically possible for her.
But the surrogacy experience in Mexico has been a painful ride. Getting the infant's documentation proved difficult, their efforts to get the newborn a passport have become mired in confusion, paperwork and legal drama that has kept their family separated since the birth. Laura stays at their home in New Jersey and Sam stays with the newborn in an Airbnb in Mexico City.
Sam Kaitz told The Washington Post, "Laura, 52, cries every day" that they're apart." He added, "When she's here, she cries because she's away from her [other] two children. When she's there, she cries because she's away from us."
"If you decide to pursue parenthood in Mexico via assisted reproductive technology (ART) with a gestational mother, be prepared for long and unexpected delays in documenting your child's citizenship," the U.S. Embassy in Mexico said.
The couple almost signed a contract with an agency in Ukraine days before Russia's invasion threw the country into turmoil. The couple then started looking for surrogacy options in Mexico, where surrogacy would cost them about $65,000. However, the couple was aware of the complications involved in surrogacy in Mexico, but the agency assured them that information was outdated, the media outlet shared.
A broker told them with a Mexican agency, both their names could be on the child's birth certificate. "That was something she was very excited about being able to say, 'I am his mother and nobody else,'" Sam said of Laura.
That belief, however, turned out to be the misunderstanding at the centre of the couple's struggle. Three days after the baby boy was born on April 18, Sam flew to Mexico City to meet him. He made an appointment at the U.S. Embassy for June 7 so Simon could get a passport and the two could return to Freehold, N.J., two days later.
The couple's situation highlights the challenges of pursuing surrogacy in Mexico.
"It has been extremely stressful," Mr Kaitz said. One of Laura's sons, who has autism, "has said to her on more than one occasion that he doesn't think that I care about him anymore because I'm down here and not with him and he feels abandoned, which breaks my heart because that is not true."
Mr Kaitz is now waiting for the DNA test results after the embassy refused to accept their documents and gave a list of documents needed.