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Chalise Smith (50), from Utah in the US, made her daughter Kaitlyn Munoz’s (25) dreams come true when she gave birth to her own granddaughter and her daughter’s baby girl.
Kaitlyn, the third of eight children, had always dreamed of having a big family of her own but health issues prevented her and her husband, Miguel, from conceiving.
After Kaitlyn was diagnosed with endometriosis, the couple began the emotionally taxing journey of conceiving through IVF. It all proved worth it though, when the couple had their first child, Callahan.
READ MORE| MY STORY| 14 IVFs, 3 egg donors and 2 surrogates: my desperate attempts to fall pregnant
While she was pregnant with her son, Kaitlyn was diagnosed with Sjogrens Syndrome – an autoimmune disease which damaged her kidneys. Doctors warned her it would be too dangerous for her to have another child.
“I was devastated,” Kaitlyn recalls. “I prayed for help to continue my family.”
The answer to her prayers came from her mom, Chalise.
Chalise decided she would be her daughter’s surrogate.
Even though her age was a concern, she was cleared by doctors and implanted with the last two embryos from Kaitlyn’s IVF cycle that conceived her son.
A few weeks later it was confirmed that Chalise was pregnant with her own grandchild.
When the baby was born on 17 May she was named after her mother and grandmother – Alayna Kait-Chalise Munoz.
“I hope for this to be a story that shines light on the person that I have become. A story on the love and sacrifice of my mom. A story that inspires. A story that I will continue to share,” says Kaitlyn.
Chalise said it was the easiest of her nine pregnancies and described the birth as "a miracle".
