Layla's Family
Layla was born of surrogacy, where a child and their narrative begin with a community of love helping intended parents to have a child, to then nest back into ‘their centre’. This journey of creation is not possible without the surrogate and her family, hence they become very close with the intended parents and of course, the child. So close that it feels like family in every way.
Layla’s family has caring circles of love and protection around the centre. The metaphor of the rings that orbit Saturn in an eternal interplay suggests this relationship well. There are other relatives, friends and care workers that bonded closely and stayed in Layla’s force for all of her life, always surrounding her with a powerful force of love.
Layla has two fathers, Ghaith and Costa, as well as a sister, Pan. She has her surrogate family as well (her tummy mummy and daddy), Sara and Kirk, as well as her (tummy) siblings, Knox and Nora. It is the blending of these families into one that has been Layla’s greatest inheritance to us. We will always have each other because of her beautiful life and the journey of her creation.
Defining Family
Layla has challenged us to find ways to explain altruism and love in the context of family in surrogacy. Pan has loved this animation explaining much of the surrogacy journey for children:
What we, as Layla's family, have ultimately understood is that 'family' is the seven practices of critical hope from the Canadian academic Kari Grain:
Grain, Kari (2022). Critical hope: how to grapple with complexity, lead with purpose, and cultivate transformative social change. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books.
During Layla's life, her family and the full spectrum of supporters all acted with critical hope, altruism and love. This was ever present for her as she lived her short life with grit, courage and serenity.
