She Agreed To Deliver Her Best Friend’s Baby, But Ended Up Getting A Lot More

she agreed to deliver her best friend's baby but ended up getting a lot more [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's something you take for granted when you were younger something that perhaps can wait until you have gotten married bought a house paid off your car and secured your income be your own business you want to grow or promotion you've worked hard long hours for there's always something holding you back from taking the plunge into motherhood and then one day you wake up and it's too late kevin and nicole baritini lived a charmed life they found each other and it was love at first sight it wasn't long before they had moved in together they bought a lovely home and got two labrador retrievers one black and one gold they were a little family and playing house was wonderful until one fateful day married in 2010 the beautiful couple had put down roots in the city of smithton new york everything was on track to be a happy little family the next logical step was of course to grow their family the dogs were their fur babies but what nicole really wanted was children of her own with the love of her life she would receive news that shattered all her dreams in an instant and nothing would ever be the same back when nicole was a teenager of only 16 she started noticing dots and bruises all over her arms these weren't the usual skin conditions that usually plague adolescent girls nor were they from any sport she was doing at school her symptoms got worse she was always tired so tired she could barely haul herself out of bed but when her skin and eyes developed a yellow hue her mother knew it was time to get her to the hospital no one knew what they would find the doctors knew that she was jaundiced just by the color of her face and eyes the fatigue was a common symptom that went along with it her liver was suffering but they just couldn't figure out the cause it was the spots and bruises that would eventually lead them to the life-changing truth they drew vials and vials from her to make the diagnosis what they found would not be good nicole was diagnosed with thrombotic thrombocytopenia purpura ttp it was a blood disorder that resulted in clots forming in her small vessels throughout her body it accounted for all her symptoms large bruises fever weakness shortness of breath confusion and headaches what exactly was happening inside her body she had a low platelet count and her red cells were breaking down fast her life was hanging in the balance nicole hospitalized had to spend a week in icu receiving plasma transfusions and finally when she had stabilized the doctors prescribed her medication that she would have to stay on for the rest of her life it would keep the disease under control but it had much farther reaching implications she just didn't know it yet fast forward to the happily married nicole overcoming everything life has thrown at her and ready to start the new chapter in her life the thing that she has always dreamed of becoming a mother she was a long way away from the scared 16 year old girl with an undiagnosed illness and her medication made her life as normal as yours or mine however when she decided to go to her doctor to get cleared for the biggest life-changing event a woman's body can go through she got terrible news doctors informed nicole that it simply wasn't possible to carry a baby with the medication she was taking for her illness her first thought let's stop the meds while she was pregnant but the doctor had more bad news for her not only was the medication unsuitable for conceiving life but it was also the only thing keeping her alive there was zero chance of her stopping treatments even for the short nine months ttp had a 95 mortality rate and that just wasn't a gamble she could take despondent and depressed nicole broke the news that they could never have a family to kevin having a baby wasn't worth putting her life at risk so the couple started brainstorming there had to be some way anyway to make their dreams of a family a reality they considered adoption but upon further investigation found that the legal fees and procedure was far out of what they could afford that's when they decided on ivf but was that even an option doctors reassured them that her ttp was not genetic and she had healthy eggs so she decided to freeze them for surrogacy little did they know the cost of hiring a surrogate was upwards of 75 000 also it was not legal in the state of new york either in other states however it was and they actually had a few offers from friends who offered to carry their baby for no compensation none of the women passed the fitness level required though it seemed they were at a dead end until the fives came along the beretinis had known lyanna and sean fives for 20 years the couple had always wanted a big family and had achieved their goal having had five children by the time lyanna was 37 and shawn was 40. six months after the birth of their fifth baby the fives invited kevin and nicole to dinner where lyanna made an announcement that changed their lives forever she began you know i have five children shawn and i want to have maybe one or two more kevin and nicole were puzzled sure if lyanna wanted more kids that was up to her but why was she telling them this their mystified looks prompted lyanna to continue no not for me for you guys i'd like to carry a child it then hit them lyanna was offering to be their surrogate the news was too much to take in and overwhelmed with emotion the couple broke down into tears as with the other surrogacy applicants that they had pinned their hopes on before lyanna she still had to undergo medical and mental tests but she passed with flying colors the day finally came when the beartini's embryos were implanted in lyanna so much was riding on this and everyone felt crushed when they didn't take and the doctors had to break the bad news they only had one more chance left doctors didn't have to try hard to encourage them to try again so as soon as possible lyanna was implanted for a second time the baritinis promised to be with lyanna every step of the way now two couples were waiting nervously for weeks everyone trying to be patient finally the results came back lyanna was pregnant this was the closest that kevin and nicole had ever been to becoming parents but in these early days they still held their breath just in case something went wrong if their hopes were too high they might be crushed if any bad news came their way that was not at all the case though in fact it was amazing news that followed more than one embryo is usually implanted to increase chances of conceiving and this time around two of the implanted embryos had started to grow which meant that lyanna was now carrying twins nicole would not have to go through all this again if she wanted another child it seemed that she would be jumping straight to two both couples decided to celebrate the fives and the baritinis planned a party to announce the impending arrival of kevin and nicole's twin babies they invited friends and families of both couples ending up with over 60 guests knowing that the bare tinies had been wanting to start a family for many years everyone was pleasantly surprised soon the big day arrived after a healthy pregnancy lyanna gave birth to nicole and kevin's babies on february 10 2017. they had a boy and a girl and they named them dominic and luciana the bear teenies burst out crying as soon as they saw their newborn children for the first time it was all thanks to the selflessness of their best friends this was an act they were determined to honor sean and lyanna were named luciana and dominic's godparents making their friendship even stronger i don't have a sister but i'd consider her like that we don't hold back we are open honest and i am constantly turning to her for guidance said nicole of lyanna knowing how lucky she had been to have someone willing to do that for her she knew she had to pay it forward wanting to help other couples in a similar situation kevin and nicole started campaigning to make surrogacy legal in new york state we have been working with local legislators and reproductive specialists of new york to make surrigacy recognized wrote kevin on his facebook page their story soon went public and they started receiving lots of media attention