As our little girl’s fifth birthday approached, she was in for a big surprise. By Lucy Evermore, 38
As I paused for breath after a rugby tackle, I glanced over towards the sidelines and spotted a crowd gathered around someone writhing on the ground.
Running over, I was surprised to see one of my team-mates, Amanda, clutching her knee in agony.
But she hadn’t even been playing!
‘What happened?’ I asked.
‘I was jumping up and down so much trying to support you all,’ she cried, ‘I dislocated my knee!’
That seemed to be Amanda all over.
I didn’t know her well, but ever since we’d met playing women’s rugby at university, I’d found her to be exuberant and funny.
And just a few weeks later, on a rugby tour in Spain, I started to like her as more than just a friend.
I’d always had boyfriends, but Amanda was kind and generous, and her infectious laugh made me realise I was falling in love.
She felt the same, and soon, she was inviting me to meet her family.
‘My sister’s getting married, and I’m being fitted for a bridesmaid dress,’ she said. ‘Come and meet everyone.’
I was nervous, but needn’t have been as her large family was friendly and welcoming.
‘Come to the wedding too,’ Amanda’s sister, Katy, said to me.
It turned out I was Amanda’s first proper girlfriend, so everyone was delighted to meet me.
‘Ooh, Amanda, I didn’t realise you’d come out of the cupboard!’ her auntie Jean exclaimed.
After university, we wanted to make our relationship official so I went to see Amanda’s mum, Anne, and dad, Mark, and asked permission for their daughter’s hand in marriage.
‘Yes!’ her mum cried, locking me into a huge hug. ‘I couldn’t be happier.’
She explained: ‘When Amanda first came out, I just wanted her to find someone special.’
I bought Amanda a beautiful platinum and diamond engagement ring and proposed to her on Craster Beach in Northumberland.
She cried and said yes. Then a few weeks later, she had a surprise of her own.
I’d had my grandma’s engagement ring in our bedroom and Amanda secretly had it reset in a platinum band to match hers.
Over dinner, she took it out and proposed.
Our wedding at Newton Hall, near our home in Northumberland, was perfect and afterwards we went on honeymoon to America.
Life was great but there was something that would make it even better — kids.
‘I’ve always wanted to experience pregnancy,’ I said to Amanda, hoping she wouldn’t mind if I was the one to carry our baby.
'But where's the baby?'
‘Go for it,’ she laughed. ‘I’m a wuss anyway!’
We agreed to use my eggs and find an anonymous sperm donor whose characteristics would be a match for Amanda’s.
A round of IVF created six embryos. One was implanted into my womb and the remaining five were frozen.
Two weeks later, I took a pregnancy test.
When the result appeared in the little window, we were overwhelmed.
‘All I want is a baby with lots of hair,’ Amanda joked.
My pregnancy progressed and, at 40 weeks, I was induced. Our daughter, Edith, was born weighing 8lb 8oz, with so much hair there were gasps in the delivery room.
‘She feels like the greatest gift of all,’ Amanda said.
As Edith grew and hit her milestones, she called me Mummy and Amanda was Mammy. But it wasn’t long before she asked us why other kids had a dad and she didn’t.
‘You come from a seed, plus my egg, and we mixed it with Mammy’s love and made you,’ I told her.
Edith accepted our explanation but there was one thing she wouldn’t let lie.
Every Christmas or birthday, there was only one present she wanted.
‘Can I have a baby sister?’ she’d say.
She was determined so, one evening, I said to Amanda: ‘I think we should try again.’
We went back to the clinic and I had another embryo implanted.
We realised that if the pregnancy took, this baby would be Edith’s twin — born five years later!
To our delight, the procedure worked first time, but things weren’t as straightforward.
At six weeks, I started to bleed and rushed to hospital.
‘Am I losing the baby?’ I asked.
The doctor explained there was a build-up of blood between the uterus wall and amniotic sac, but it wasn’t dangerous.
So that evening, we decided to surprise Edith.
We handed her an envelope and she opened it and pulled out a blurry image.
‘But where’s the baby?’ she asked, confused.
‘In Mummy’s tummy,’ we said.
Her eyes widened and then her little chin wobbled. A moment later, big tears of happiness began to plop down her face.
At 40 weeks, I was induced but I ended up having an emergency Caesarean.
Amanda was there, by
my side and she handed a bundle to me.
‘It’s a girl!’ she said.
Weighing 7lb 13oz and with a shock of dark hair, our new baby daughter looked just like Edith had.
She really was her little twin!
It was 1 December and we decided to call her Mary.
Three days later, we celebrated Edith’s fifth birthday.
‘I’ve got the best birthday present ever!’ she said.
Now Mary is nine months old, and she and Edith adore each other.
Amanda and I feel so lucky.
We know that not everyone can afford the £15,000 we spent on IVF, so we’d like to see it available on the NHS to all same-sex couples.
When I look at our wonderful little family, I feel like bursting with pride, and that’s something everyone deserves.