How SEAM Helped Kim “Feel Like a Person, Not Just An Account Number”

About Kim…

A woman with a gigantic heart, Kim has four biological children, two adopted, and three foster children. She has served as a gestational surrogate five times and has worked with several different agencies over the course of each of those journeys.

Kim found her way to surrogacy after a miscarriage. She knew she was healthy enough to carry again and didn’t want her story to end there. For her, surrogacy was both a way to heal and to help other people.

“I usually just have such easy pregnancies and deliveries, and it was just like, we have been blessed with all these children. And some people, you know, can’t conceive or need help conceiving or whatever the case or the situation may be. And so we just kind of stepped in to fill that void.

“Because when that fifth pregnancy just ended so tragically, I thought, ‘That’s not my story. We’re going to rewrite that.’ And so I wanted to carry for someone else and have that be my happy ending instead.”

A Lot of “Unnecessary Stress…”

Kim had used SEAM for her first two surrogacy journeys, but her third journey was a bit different. She matched with a set of intended parents through an agency that had in-house escrow account management services.

The fathers-to-be had paid a fee for the in-house escrow already, so Kim agreed to let the agency handle the escrow. However, the issues started showing up almost immediately…

“I ended up just saying, ‘Oh. Well, I’m sure it’s fine,’ but if you called, no one would call you back. And if you sent an email, it would be a week before you got a response. And it seemed like any time they looked at or referred to my contract, it was never accurate. I ended up, several times, taking screenshots of my contract, highlighting sections, and being like, ‘No! Look, this is what it says.’”

The lack of response and action on the agency’s side was stressful for Kim. She was continually following up to get payments made, expenses reimbursed, and having to argue over what her contract said with them. It was disorganized and took forever to get an issue addressed — let alone resolved or paid out. It also impacted Kim’s relationship with her intended parents.

“It made it uncomfortable between the intended fathers and myself. Because, you know, part of the beautiful thing of using an escrow company is you don’t have to talk about money, because no one likes to really discuss that. So we were having to put out fires for this escrow company and talk between ourselves and it was kind of like, ‘Wait. I thought they were supposed to be the middleman. We’re the ones that are trying to help them!’”

Fortunately, Kim had a good relationship with her intended parents, and they were both on the same page about what payments were meant to be made and what expenses needed to be reimbursed.

“I couldn’t imagine what would have happened if I didn’t have a good relationship with them. How that journey would have gone… They were first-time parents, so they had never done anything like that before. Luckily it worked out, but with just a lot of unnecessary stress.”

Feel Like A Person — Not Just An Account Number

At the end of the day, escrow account management should make your surrogacy journey smoother, not be another thing you have to deal with. For Kim and her intended parents, switching to SEAM for their second surrogacy journey together made a huge difference in their quality of life.

“It really is seamless. Everything is just so smooth. It all just runs like clockwork. And all the girls over there do a fantastic job. They know what they’re doing. And if something ever does get missed — which, in FIVE journeys, has happened one time — it gets remedied immediately. So it’s just fantastic to feel like a person on the journey, not just an account number.”

Kim also works in the surrogacy industry (for an agency that does not offer in-house escrow services) and had this to say about SEAM from a professional perspective.

“SEAM has such a good reputation that we, even as a company, never hesitate to throw their name in the hat if someone needs a recommendation. And they totally live up to it. I’ve never had anyone say, ‘Wow, wish we hadn’t used SEAM.’ There’s never been complaints or issues or anything, ever. Everything is just so smooth. It runs just the way it should. Honestly, it’s seamless.”