I help families grow.
But the truth is, my journey didn’t start
with a business plan.
Two Worlds
My husband and I got married in 2006, and pretty quickly we started building a family of our own. Three kids in just a few years. Our house was loud, messy, and full of the kind of chaos that comes with raising little kids.
At the same time, I was working in the world of egg donation and surrogacy. So every day, I was living in two different worlds.
At home, I was raising three healthy kids. At work, I was walking with families who desperately wanted children and couldn't have them on their own.
And the longer I lived in both of those spaces, the more I realized something: this work wasn't just about helping families. It was about how the industry itself operates.
It Became Personal
Before I ever owned an agency, I experienced this journey personally.
I entered this industry as a donor, and then as a surrogate. I went through the medical process, the screenings, and the emotional reality of helping another family bring a child into the world.
What I learned as an egg donor
I was young when I donated, and I thought of it as something I was doing for someone else. What I didn't understand yet was that I was also making a decision on behalf of a person who didn't exist yet — someone who would one day have questions about where they came from. That realization is the reason I care so much about disclosure, records, and openness now.
A Defining Decision
A few years later, I had a moment that would shape the rest of my life.
I was walking through TJ Maxx when I thought, “I think I should probably be a surrogate.” Not for us. For a family that was still waiting.
And that experience changed everything. Because surrogacy isn't just a medical process. It's a human one.
What surprised me as a surrogate
I expected the medical part to be the hard part. It wasn't. What surprised me was how much of surrogacy happens in the ordinary moments — the phone calls, the waiting, the way two families have to learn to trust each other before there's a baby to hold. I also didn't expect how much support I would need, and how few people thought to offer it.
A Broader View of Family
A few years later, our family stepped into foster care.
One night, our foster care journey started when two young boys came into our home, and overnight our family grew from three kids to five. Those months were some of the hardest and most meaningful of our lives.
And when it was time for them to return home, saying goodbye changed the way I understand family forever.
Family isn't defined by genetics. It's defined by love, commitment, and who shows up.
We continued to foster because we knew every child deserves that love, commitment, and someone who is going to show up for them time and time again. We knew we could do that.
This is what that experience feels like for the people living it.
“She walked beside us without rushing us. We never felt like a transaction — we felt like a family being formed.”
— Intended Parents
How becoming a foster mom changed how I think about family
Fostering took every assumption I had about family and rearranged it. I learned that loving a child fully and letting them go can be the same act. It taught me that family is something you choose to show up for, over and over, with no guarantee of what you get back.
What This Taught Me
Those experiences shaped how I believe this work should be done. Because this industry isn't just about medicine. It's about people.
It's about protecting women who choose to donate or carry. It's about guiding families through complicated decisions. And it's about making sure the children born through these processes are considered with care — not just at birth, but for the rest of their lives.
What being a mom of three taught me that nothing else could
Raising my own three children is what keeps this work honest for me. Every time I sit with an intended parent, I know exactly what they're hoping for, because I get to live it in my own loud, messy house. It's also what makes me protective of the women who help make that possible.
Different rooms, different years, the same conviction.
People are not commodities.
Surrogacy is not a transaction. It's a human journey.
Ethics must be operational, not aspirational.
Trust alone is not a safeguard. Structure is.
Education doesn't slow the process down. It prevents it from breaking later.
Professional Background
Katy Encalade is the President and CEO of Egg Donor & Surrogate Solutions and a leading agency advocating for ethical, transparent pathways to parenthood.
With nearly two decades of experience, she has helped guide more than 2,000 intended parents through egg donation and surrogacy journeys while building an agency known for its commitment to transparency, education, and ethical practices.
Katy has served as Board Chair of the Society for Ethics in Egg Donation and Surrogacy (SEEDS) and currently serves on the board of Families Out Loud, continuing to advocate for responsible industry practices.
She has also produced and contributed to Called to Carry, a devotional featuring real stories from surrogates and intended parents navigating faith and surrogacy.
There isn’t one way to build a family, but there are responsible ways to walk that journey.
Katy Encalade