The Surrogacy Experience: Pregnancy (Part 2 of 3)

To learn more about this incredible journey to pregnancy, be sure to read part one of "The Surrogacy Experience."

Last summer, Karen Holmes was talking on the phone and missed an important call. When the fertility clinic nurse tried to reach her with the positive results from her pregnancy test, all she got was a busy tone. So the nurse called Karen's best friend, Kelly Russell, instead.

When Kelly got the call, she burst into "hysterical crying and called my husband," says Kelly. The Russells had more than a friendly concern for Karen's pregnancy: Karen was pregnant with the Russells' baby.

A gestational surrogate for the Russells, Karen had had the couples' embryo(s) implanted in her and would now carry the baby for her friends, who otherwise were unable to have a healthy pregnancy.

Karen, who already had three of her own children and had a tubal ligation years before, knew that she was finished with her family. However, when close friends Dege and Kelly Russell experienced several pregnancy losses and one baby born so prematurely that he only survived nine days, Karen wanted to help. (Learn how the Holmes and Russell family arrived at their surrogacy decision in part one of "The Surrogacy Experience".)

Read more about The Russells' and Holmes' incredible journey in the final installment of "The Surrogacy Experience."