What they mention most: the first call, the matching, what happened when something went wrong, and the day the documents were finally in hand.
Twice we were told our documents were fine, and twice they came back. ReproLegal rebuilt the whole file before submitting anything, and it went through first time. The call with our surrogate was the moment it stopped feeling like paperwork.
What decided it was the first call. We asked what happens if a transfer fails and instead of reassurance we were read the clause number. Everything since has been that specific.
Our second cycle did not work. Nobody disappeared and nobody softened it — we had a call the same evening explaining what had changed and what it would cost. Our daughter was born eleven months later.
As a single father I had been turned away by two agencies before anyone would look at my passport. Here that was the first thing they checked, and by the end of the call I knew which two destinations were realistic and which were not.
We are two men and we expected the awkward pause. It never came. What we got instead was a map of which countries would put both our names on the certificate and what our embassy would want afterwards.
The part nobody prepares you for is the month after the birth, waiting on documents in a country you do not know. Sasha called every day, sometimes with nothing new to say. That mattered more than I can explain.