“We all seek connection, and we seek love and support,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s all we’re doing.”

Matthew and Elliot married in fall 2015. It was seeing two of their siblings have kids that sparked the conversation about building a family.

They considered adoption but weren’t sure how the process worked for gay couples. They wanted more control over the process, so they decided on in vitro fertilization, an increasingly common method both for same-sex couples and couples who struggle with infertility.

They knew they’d need eggs and a woman to carry the baby, also known as a gestational carrier.

In stepped Yribe, now 26. “When they first mentioned wanting to take this step and have a kid, I told them I would want to do whatever I could to help them,” she said.

By the time they were ready, she’d recently delivered her second child, so carrying another so soon wasn’t a good option. But her offer of eggs meant the couple could have a child that shared both of their genetic material.