From Mexico to Australia with love

Hi! Our names are Lachlan and Sebastian. We're twins and we want to share our special and personal story with you, in the hope that you can help us meet our biological donor father.

Sebastian on the left. Lachlan to the right.

In 2014 our mums were on sabatical, travelling the world. Along the way they made the big decision to go ahead with plans to begin a family. Being a same sex couple, beginning a family required some serious thought and planning. They both wanted to have a special connection to us and so they decided that they would undergo reciprocal IVF. This means they would use Mum's (Brooke) eggs and Mummy (Jocelyn) would carry us. As they would need to undergo IVF to do this, they looked into where along their travel path they could do this. Cancun in Mexico came up as an option. They decided as they were going to Mexico towards the end of their travels, before heading home to Australia, they would do it there.

Brooke and Jocelyn

Mum was in contact with the IVF clinic in Cancun and as part of the process our mums needed to select a sperm donor. They browsed details of donors on international sites and looked at donor options availiable through the clinic. In Mexico sperm donors are anonymous. Children and recipients aren't entitled to find out information or know the sperm donor and vice versa. Our mums came across a donor profile which they really liked the sound of. The donor was a young Mexican man, whos reason for donating and other personal information (medical, personality profile, education) and photo appealed to them. They decided they would choose him (number 6963) as the donor. They let the clinic know the profile number of the donor they had picked and the clinic proceeded with arrangements.

As they were travelling between countries, Mum's hotmail kept locking her out. She was finding it hard to make arrangements with the clinic's international patient coordinator via email due to the lock out issue. Mum messaged the coordinator via the clinics webpage and suggested they could make arrangements more effectively by chatting on Facebook, as it didn't have the lock out issue. The coordinator added mum as a friend on Facebook and away they went with the organisation, thinking nothing more of it.

In November 2014 our mums went through a round of reciprocal IVF and fell pregnant in Cancun. They returned to Australia at the end of December 2014. In January they found out they were pregnant with twins. Not too much longer after that they found out it was two baby boys.

In March 2015 Mum was flicking through her Facebook feed and a picture of the clinic coordinator came up in her feed. He was with a few friends in the picture and one caught her eye. She stopped and looked closer at the photo. She couldn't believe what she saw. She went to her file that she kept all the documents from the IVF process in and pulled up the donor profile. The profile contained a picture of the donor. He looked just like one of the men in the photo. She called our mummy over and showed her. They were stunned. Could that be the twins donor father?

After a few weeks of contemplation and reading a lot about the experiences of IVF donor concieved children, our mum decided she wanted to contact the man tagged in the photo. She wanted to send a Facebook message to let him know what had happened and see if he wanted to know anything about us. She was very nervous. She didn't want to intrude on this strangers life or make him feel uncomfortable. As reluctant as she was, she felt like she should open that door and make contact incase we wanted to know more one day. She didn't want the opportunity to pass by, as there was no other way that we would ever be able to find out about him otherwise. She first messaged the coordinator to tell him what had happened and he eventually confirmed that the guy in the picture was a friend of his who just happened to also be a donor. He was shocked by the turn of events and how this had happened but said his friend was a kind man and the decision was theirs to make. He was amazed this had happened and was sure his friend would be open to knowing. He said they could contact him via Facebook if they chose to.

Mum thoughtfully drafted a message to Joel (the donor) and pressed send. Would he reply and what would he say?

Joel replied. He was shocked! Very shocked! but he was also incredibly happy. He told her he had been speaking to a friend only a few days before about the donation. He  was aware the sperm donation was positive but that was all the information they are given under Mexican law. He told his friend that it occured to him, he may have children out there who would want to know something about him one day but never be able to. While he'd been very happy to donate and help a couple, he thought that was a sad side effect.

Joel - Donor - Biological Father

Now here he was 6 months later chatting to a couple he had donated  to, who were pregnant, with twins and they were on the other side of the world! He said he was so glad they had contacted him and was more than happy to keep in contact, incase we wanted to know him or if any other information was wanted. He would love to see some pictures of us from time to time too. Mum said they would keep in touch and just take it as it came. She told him they were happy for him to know as much or as little about us along the way. They chatted every month or so and got to know each other a little, right up until we were born on 26 June 2015. We were 7 weeks premature. One of the first photos sent out went to Joel. Joel told Mum he was amazed, blessed and thankful all this had happened.

Sebastian - 1.8kg 

Lachlan 1.9kg

As time has gone on Joel and our Mums have kept in touch. Photos of us growing and learning are messaged. Joel has shared photos of him as a baby and told them lots about his family and their history. They are friends on Facebook and video chat too. Joel got to see us on video chat when we were a few months old. Every month, Joel and our mums organise a video chat and he sees us and talks to us. He speaks Spanish but his English is really good too. Sebastian looks just like Joel. I look more like mum but I have Joel's eyes. 

Lachie & Sebastian (6 months old)

Joel is very proud of us. The first time he saw us on video he said his heart was so happy. He told mum he was really touched and even though he'd never met us he felt love for us. He has told his family about us. We have a whole family in Mexico and one day we might get to meet them. Joel posts some of the funny photos he gets of us on his Facebook page to show us off to the rest of his family and friends. He thinks we are cute and really wants to meet us one day. (A video from Joel in his own words is available in the updates).

Joel video chatting with the boys

We want to meet Joel too. Mum thinks our story and how all this came about is amazing and very fortunate. She wanted to share it with you all in the hope that you can help us meet our biological father and bring two families from opposite sides of the world together. 

We are hoping to raise funds to fly Joel from Cancun, Mexico to Perth, Australia to meet us.

Funds raised will be used for the following:

Passport and Visa fees
Return international flights
Travel insurance

We are hoping to meet Joel for the first time in 2016. Maybe even for Christmas!

This would mean a lot to us, as we would like Joel to be able to meet us early in life. It will be good for us to know him growing up and we would love to have him see us. This wasn't something planned for, as it wasn't expected. Mum was made redundant a few weeks after we were born and so would appreciate help making this experience a reality for us and Joel. We will be very thankful to anyone who can make any contribution to help out. Video and photos of us meeting Joel will be posted, so you can share in our amazing little story.