Source People
Andrea Valentine, of Cypress, Texas, was caught off guard when her neighbor, Tawnee Gonzalez, offered to be her surrogate after she and her husband had experienced fertility struggles.
Valentine, 39, and her husband, James Valentine, 42, had been trying for four years to have children with Valentine suffering two miscarriages. Over the years, Valentine had shared her family’s struggles with her neighbor-turned-friend Gonzales.
“As I got to know Andrea and their struggle I wanted to help. I said, ‘If it comes down to it and you need a surrogate, I’d be willing to do it for you,’ ” Gonzalez, 35, recalls to PEOPLE. “There’s really no greater gift you can give someone than the gift of being a parent. That’s something they had wanted their entire lives.”