Restore Hope for Richard and Jessica after SEAM Theft

Hello, my name is Elizabeth Umphres. I am creating a gofundme on behalf of my brother Richard Climer and sister-in-law Jessica Climer.

Richard and Jessica have always dreamed of being parents. Unfortunately their journey has been challenging. And recently it was made tremendously more difficult. They were in the middle of a surrogacy journey when all their money was suddenly stolen by Dominque Side. She is the owner of Surrogacy Escrow Account Management or SEAM. She has stolen millions of dollars from intended parents who have trusted their money with her company. The escrow company is supposed to be a mutual trusted party that sends money to the surrogate throughout the process. Richard and Jessica put all of their savings and some of their retirement money into their escrow account. They were able to make two payments to their current surrogate before SEAM stole their remaining balance of $44,252.48. Nearly $45,000 gone overnight! Unfortunately there are no laws in place that protect against fraud from escrow companies.

Richard and Jessica who have found a wonderful human to carry their baby through their surrogacy agency now have no money to pay her. They were set to transfer their embryo in September and were looking forward to finally having their parenthood dreams realized.

If you are able to assist them, they would be so grateful. 100% of the funds will be used to pay Richard and Jessica’s surrogate. Also please share their story.

If you would like to read more about what SEAM and Dominque Side have done to this vulnerable population, please read this article:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/07/19/us/houston-surrogacy-escrow-company-fraud-scheme-lawsuit

And if you would like to hear more about Richard and Jessica’s story and how they came to the path of surrogacy please read what Jessica has written below.

My name is Jessica Climer. The following is mine and my husband Richard’s thirteen year long road to parenthood, which hasn’t come to fruition yet.

Our marriage started as most marriages do, with dreams of growing a family. About two years after we married, we were expecting our first child. Everything was going well in the first trimester, but during a routine office visit the doctor discovered things weren’t right and told us to be prepared for the pregnancy to self-terminate. While you can never fully prepare for the loss of a child, we were determined not to let the experience hinder our dreams.  A few months later we found out that we were pregnant again. This pregnancy seemed to be going very well, but at fifteen weeks along things weren’t right, and Makayla Jennifer Climer was delivered. We were devastated.

We weren’t going to allow these losses to deter us from our dream of parenthood. We tried to conceive naturally for five years to no avail. Eventually we sought fertility assistance with the help of a specialist, and thus our In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) journey began. Our IVF journey would last for four physically, emotionally, and financially taxing years. During these years I endured weekly office visits that included blood tests, ultrasounds, and other procedures plus medication. Did I mention that insurance doesn’t cover IVF? This process is expensive, we estimate we invested about $80,000.00 for IVF. After two egg retrievals we ended up with seven good quality embryos. It wasn’t long before an embryo was transferred and I was pregnant, however, the pregnancy again resulted in loss. We managed to keep our heads up, through our faith and hope and were able to move forward with another embryo transfer and this time the pregnancy looked good. I was determined not to lose this baby, and had a temporary cerclage placed. Unfortunately the cerclage failed at nineteen weeks of pregnancy and Whitney Anne Climer was delivered. This delivery was hard on my body as I hemorrhaged and nearly lost my own life in the process, but thanks to the quick thinking physician my life was spared. This situation made me unable to carry a pregnancy to term, thus surrogacy seemed to be the best option to grow our family.

            We chose an Agency that matched us with a surrogate in late 2023. The legal Agreement was signed and the next step was to place $45,000.00 into an Escrow Account. We transferred the money as outlined in the Agreement to SEAM, LLC. Unfortunately, the surrogate had medical issues and we had to end our contract with her in December 2023. We opted to leave the money in SEAM, LLC as we were determined to start with a new surrogate, which we did in May of 2024. In June we were informed that SEAM,LLC had missed two payments owed to our new surrogate. We quickly learned that all of the money entrusted to SEAM, LLC, was missing. SEAM, LLC is currently at the center of a lawsuit and we don’t know if we will ever recoup any of the money that was stolen from us. We are not wealthy and do not come from wealth. The money we had was carefully saved over many years and some of it came from our retirement accounts.  

Richard is a Social Worker with a focus on Behavioral Health and I work as an Asset Specialist for an Ice Cream Distribution company. Richard is working additional hours when shifts become available at the hospital to replace some of the funds, but with the upcoming embryo transfer in Mid-September any money he does earn won’t be enough to cover the medical and surrogate payments needed.

 Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. The Cancer was caught very early and after a double mastectomy I am happy to report that I am cancer free today, but this diagnosis also hit our finances as its expensive even with health insurance. 

Marriage and finances are already hard enough to deal with in normal circumstances; add infertility, child loss, cancer, and financial struggles to the mix and it makes it extremely difficult. Despite everything that we have been through, we are determined to never lose hope or joy. I’ve learned that if you allow circumstances to take these things from you, you get robbed over and over again.

     Our ultimate dream is to be parents. We have so much love to give and we want to share it with family. Will you help us get there?