'Born out of love': Surrogate in Ohio gives birth to rare identical triplets for Michigan dads

AKRON, Ohio — When identical triplets Parker, Robin and Sylvie O’Neill are old enough to understand the full story of their journey to birth, they will learn about a story of serendipity, love and selflessness.

The 1-month-old girls are the daughters of husbands Kevin O’Neill and Eric Portenga of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Their surrogate was Maureen Farris of West Akron, Ohio.

“We love these girls’ birth story, and I hope someday we can sit around the table and share it with them and tell them and they’ll love it as well and be proud of it as we are,” Farris said.

The girls were born Sept. 9 by cesarean section at Cleveland Clinic Akron General and taken directly to the neonatal intensive care unit at Akron General. They spent 18 days in the NICU.

But the girls’ journey to birth started several years ago on another continent.

O’Neill and Michigan native Portenga met in O’Neill’s native Scotland, when Portenga was pursuing his doctoral degree in earth science. They fell in love and married five years ago, living for some time in Scotland. Jobs brought the couple to Michigan.

A few years ago, the couple started researching adoption and surrogacy, interviewing agencies that could help them.

A mutual friend, Cathy Cherico, ended up connecting the couple with Farris, their future surrogate.

They jokingly call Cherico the “surrogate whisperer” because it's the second set of friends she would connect to start a family. Cherico, who lives in Ann Arbor and met O’Neill and Portenga through her boss and became close friends, knew of their struggle as a gay couple wanting to adopt or find a surrogate.

In her mind, Cherico had been thinking of Farris, a college classmate when both were studying to be teachers at the University of Akron about a decade ago.

Farris told Cherico and friends she enjoyed being pregnant, but she and her husband Jeremiah Currier weren’t going to have more kids.

Unbeknownst to Cherico, Farris said she had been thinking about surrogacy if anyone ever needed it, but she never pursued it or even mentioned it to her husband.

More than a year later in June, one day before her other surrogate friend gave birth to a boy, Cherico got a text from Farris, who shared that she quit her job to stay a home.

“I felt that the universe was telling me something and I needed to listen,” Cherico said.

She texted Farris and apologized if her ask was wildly inappropriate: Would Farris consider serving as a surrogate for a gay couple who wanted a child?

“In my mind, I hadn’t even mentioned it to my husband yet, so it was sort of like, ‘Oh my God, the universe is working way too quickly!' But I need to at least investigate it," Farris recalled. "I told Cathy I was interested.”

A 'soulmate connection'

Cherico suggested the couples meet by themselves to see if they were on the same page.

O’Neill said their “first date” was perfect.

Farris agreed.

"Once we met, it just felt like a soulmate connection in a way where we could tell we were really getting along and enjoying each other’s company,” she said. “I understood that they would be the dads and they were wonderful people from the minute I met them."

Farris and the couple agreed she would not use her own eggs.

“I knew that I could keep that mindset of ushering these babies into their family's lives if I knew I could maintain that mindset if it wasn’t genetically my child,” she said.

They all agreed Farris and her family would be involved in the baby’s life.

“In our mind’s eye before this started, the surrogate was always going to have to be a part of the kid’s life,” O'Neill said.

'Are you guys sitting down?'

In early January, one embryo was transferred into Farris’ uterus. Due to COVID-19 visitation rules, Portenga could only be in the hallway via FaceTime. O’Neill was in Scotland visiting his parents, so he also watched via FaceTime as did Farris’ husband, who was at home.

Then they waited 10 days before Farris could go in for a blood test to determine if she was pregnant.