Meet Nathaniel + Steve
Meet Steve
About Steve (In Nate’s words)—Stephen is smart, funny, optimistic, and deeply caring. He has a rare ability to offer thoughtful, wise advice in all kinds of situations — whether it’s helping with college essays, supporting a loved one through a divorce, or guiding a friend through a complicated ethics board hearing. From early on, I was drawn to his unique blend of intelligence and intuition.
Becoming a father has been incredibly meaningful to him. He’s the uncle nieces and nephews turn to for help with math homework, and when he reads a new book or walks through a National Park, he’s already imagining how he’ll one day experience it alongside our children. Stephen has a gift for finding unique and refreshing perspective, even easing tough moments with his wry humor.
He’s outgoing, makes friends easily, and consistently prioritizes showing up for the people he loves. I feel incredibly lucky to have him as my partner for all of these reasons — and many more. He is an amazing father to our son, Luca, and will be a wonderful dad to the future child you are helping us bring into the world.
Meet Nathaniel
About Nathaniel (In Steveʻs words)—Nate is loyal and extremely responsible. He makes me feel both protected and protective in return. Nate’s handsome with a strong nose, tall, lean, built like a collegiate swimmer. He’s patriotic and has great taste in music, which makes even long car rides something to look forward to.
When Nate laughs, I light up. He has a genuine love for dogs and taught me the same, coming from a family that never had pets. I see him as a blend of his family lineage — carrying the curiosity of his scientist grandfather and the reasoning of his legal scholar grandparent.
When we met, Nate was working as a forester, and that sense of purpose and connection to the natural world has remained. Never content to stand still, he consistently learns and furthers himself. His ability to focus and think deeply allows him to navigate complex legal matters with clarity. These same qualities will make him an incredible teacher and role model for our kids.
Within the first month of meeting, I knew we would one day exchange vows. Watching Nate step into the role of Dad after the recent birth of our son, Luca, has been both a natural progression and a profound joy.
Building a Home
We are excited to continue growing our family, and are so grateful you’re considering helping us do so. We’ve spent the past several years choosing the right town and school system and fixing up a home, to craft a place we hope our children can truly thrive. We’d like to provide for them every opportunity to explore and a chance to flourish wherever their talents lead. Our home is a playful and active place. We live on a 6,000 acre lake with a forest and trails around and our days are often spent outdoors. With twelve nieces and nephews, our yard is frequently full with laughter, good food and connection. Our family gathers at our house for games inside and sport outside: boating, water skiing, kayaking, swimming, ice skating, tossing snowballs with our pup. We aspire to offer our children adventure, deep learning, togetherness and memory making – this heart of the life we’re building.
Our Family
We’ve been together 13 years, married for two, having met at a time when we both worked in New York. From our grandparents (all 4 pairs reaching 50 years of marriage), to our parents, to our siblings raising their children, we have gathered an ingrained sense of loyalty and support to offer our kids. In our formative years, we hung out with our own cousins, aunts, uncles as kids, sharing adventures and holidays with them - for each of us, these are strong memories. Any child we bring into this world will have our unconditional love; a caring, if not doting, extended family; cousins to play with, and now a big brother.
To Our Surrogate
We’re grateful for your consideration and hope to build a relationship rooted in kindness and trust. We’re excited and humbled to be able to make a dream reality with you. We would enjoy being as connected as you'd like throughout this journey, understanding you have your own family and full life. It could be fun to find creative ways to bond with baby, since we'd likely be geographically distanced (sharing Bump articles, the Kick Count app, or music, open to ideas!). We’re comfortable with various levels of relationship, whatever feels right to you and evolves organically; happy to take your lead on what you’d prefer. Getting updates on how you're doing and feeling is meaningful to us. We also appreciate being looped in on medical questions or concerns.
Here we are with our precious nephews!
Fun Facts
Steve was a diver in college.
We both have grandfathers who served in WWII.
Steve’s brother did two surrogacy journeys through Await Surrogacy and we’ve done one journey through Await Surrogacy! We are excited that our children’s cousins will have similar stories!
Favorite Team: Anything USA at the Olympics; Villanova Wildcats
Clinic we are using: New England Fertility Institute in Stamford, CT.