Successful Surrogate Pregnancy Gives Chance For Local High School Sweethearts to Start a Family

The Gills are growing after three years of finding a surrogate and six failed embryo transfers, the seventh one proved to be the lucky one for high school sweethearts Brianna and Josh Gill, who had a successful pregnancy at 13-and-a-half weeks in.

Josh (left), Brianna (middle) and Jenn (right) with the former two holding lemons, indicating the rough size of the baby at 13 weeks of pregnancy. Photo courtesy of Brianna Gill.

Brianna was diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome, a condition that affects women to have underdeveloped uteri and vaginas, causing them to be unable to reproduce. Brianna was born without a uterus though she does have ovaries when she was diagnosed at 16.

The Gills have gone through two surrogates with the first being a family friend in 2022. They had two unsuccessful embryo transfers and eventually put a call for another candidate later that year.

“There have been numerous times where I’ve wanted to walk away,” said Brianna. “It’s just been so hard emotionally, financially and you start to think to yourself, ‘Why am I putting myself through all of this?’”

A woman named Jenn (who saw our first article of the story on Facebook) reached out to be their surrogate in the summer of 2022. She underwent four unsuccessful embryo transfers before the fifth one hit the mark and was eventually revealed to be a baby girl.

“(It was) Complete disbelief, to be honest,” said Brianna. “We actually got together with Jenn and her family, we were waiting for blood work results to come back but got impatient.”

Jenn suggested a pregnancy test since she had a ‘good feeling.’

“Josh looked at it first; the pregnant line was clearly darker than the other, and I just went into complete shock,” explained Brianna. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Brianna said Jenn was a driving factor in continuing to pursue the dream despite the past failed attempts.

“We had originally agreed — which is pretty standard — you’ll try three times and after that, if things don’t work, you’ll break a match and look for a new surrogate,” she said. “Jenn is so determined. She wanted this so badly for us.”

While the Gills had stopped after two failed transfers from their first surrogate, Jenn’s will was unphased in helping them reach their goal.

“She kept saying after each failed transfer, ‘I’m willing to try again if you guys are but I totally understand if you’d rather go in a different direction,’ but I think having her be so determined is what helped us want to continue.”

It also helped that the embryos were expensive to create so stopping could have cost a lot of money for the Gills with no results.

The Gills recently held a gender reveal party earlier in the week and tracked their entire journey on Instagram with over 2,800 followers.

Even 13-and-a-half weeks into the pregnancy, Brianna's thought of having a baby was still surreal.

“We got our first bump picture around the 10-week mark and that really helped make me feel that this was real,” she explained. “It’s hard to let go of the trauma of going through of the negatives and I finally feel like I am able to focus on the future and enjoy where we are.”

With a successful pregnancy and a baby girl on the way, Brianna says that this is the motivation for perhaps a second one to come in the future.

“This journey was a lot harder than we ever thought it would be which definitely played a factor at one point on whether or not we could mentally go through this again,” she explained. “Finally, now that we've had success too and we can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I think it will motivate us to try to do this again someday for sure.” 

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The Gills Are Growing, Local High School Sweethearts Have Found A Surrogate

Josh and Brianna Gill, local high school sweethearts, have found a surrogate and hope to be able to grow their family soon.

Photo courtesy of ‘Growing The Gills’.

When Brianna was 16 she was diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH), a condition that affects one in 5000 women. With this diagnosis Brianna learned that she was born without a uterus, though she does have ovaries.

At the time the two had been dating for two years and Brianna thought she should tell Josh right away.

“I always felt like I was going to be with Josh forever and I think that’s why I wanted to tell him right away. I thought he had a right to know that if he wanted kids that would be a challenge for us,” she said in a former interview with PTBOCanada. “I thought if he decided that was too much for him to deal with we could just end things right there, but he was so supportive and he has been by my side ever since.”

The Gills were married in 2018 and began their surrogacy journey in January of 2021. They started their Instagram account ‘Growing The Gills’.

A family friend offered to to be their surrogate, but after two embryo transfers that were unsuccessful it was back to the drawing board for the hopeful parents.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brianna + Josh Gill = intended parents (@growingthegills)

On April 6, the two posted a video to Instagram re-introducing themselves and searching for someone willing to help them complete their family.

That video gained traction on social media and now three months later a candidate for surrogacy has been found.

Jenn, who will be the Gill’s surrogate, came across an article about the couple on Facebook and reached out.

Together, the Gills and Jenn are hoping to complete a transfer this fall, which would mean a baby Gill would arrive sometime in the spring or summer of 2023.

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Peterborough Public Library is Yarn Bombed For National Deafblind Awareness Month

Roughly 130 squares crocheted together is the newest art piece for Peterborough Public Library as they were ‘yarn bombed’ for National Deafblind Awareness Month on Thursday.

Sarah Grimbly, Deafblind communications coordinator (left) with Mayor Diane Therrien (right) with the roughly 130 crocheted squares hanging on the left side of the Peterborough Public Library upon walking in the main entrance. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Yarn bombing (also known as knitfiti) is a form of street art where yarn is knit, crocheted or wrapped and is displayed in a public space.

The yarn squares were made by people serviced by Deaf Blind Ontario Services (a company that provides services to deaf and/or blind), knitting groups and volunteers. The company’s campaign is in its second year to celebrate those who are blind and/or deaf.

“The individuals we support have both hearing and vision loss and heavily rely on their tactile senses,” said Sarah Grimbly, DeafBlind communications coordinator. “Knitting, crocheting, the feeling of the yarn, that's all very tactile and so it was a great way to get them participating in the initiative as well.”

Mayor Diane Therrien says it is an initiative that Peterborough is happy to get behind and will be effective in helping create dialogue and awareness for deaf and blind people.

“The Peterborough Library is a community hub, there's a lot of people that come through here so the more awareness we can bring to it, the better,” she said. “It's a great conversation piece that people will talk about and spread the word to friends and family.”

Several crocheted projects have yarn-bombed cities all over the province. They exist in parks, downtown spaces, public buildings and more. Participating cities include London, Innisfil and Ottawa alongside Peterborough.

The knitted project remains on the library wall for the month of June.

National Deafblind Awareness Month happens every June since it is the birth month of famed author Helen Keller, known for having vision and hearing loss.

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Ontario Law Allowing Employees To Disconnect After Hours Begins Today

Ontario’s ‘Right To Disconnect’ policy, allowing employees the right to ignore any and all work-related communication after scheduled hours, came into effect on Thursday.

Photo by Luke Best.

This policy was inspired by a 2016 law giving workers in France the right to turn off electronic work devices outside of business hours.

Bill 27: Working for Workers Act, 2021, requires employers with 25 or more people on staff as of Jan. 1, 2022 to have a policy as of Thursday that outlines how they will ensure workers are able to disconnect from the workplace after hours.

Employers are now required to provide their staff with a written copy of the policy, which applies to all employees.

According to The Working for Workers Act, disconnecting means “not engaging in work-related communications, including emails, telephone calls, video calls or sending or reviewing other messages, to be free from the performance of work.”.

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Peterborough Police Warn Public Of Credit Card Fraud Scam

Peterborough Police are warning the community after receiving a number of calls to 9-1-1 that were scam calls.

Photo by Luke Best.

According to reports, male phones the victim identifying themselves as PC Robert Lawrence badge 555140 from 51 Division Major Fraud department with Toronto Police and that the person’s credit card has been cloned and police have someone under arrest.  The scammer then instructs the person to call 911 to verify their identity and get a record check.

It's been confirmed that there is no officer with Toronto Police Service by that name or badge number and it is a scam.

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Local Man Creates Virtual Fitness Challenge For Mental Health Awareness

Joe Keating of Peterborough has created the 4,000 Reps for Mental Health Awareness virtual fitness challenge to raise mental health awareness on Saturday.

Joe Keating ran the campaign saying working on mental health is as important as physical health. Photo Courtesy of Joe Keating.

Keating will perform 4,000 kettlebell swings on his front lawn (weather pending) live on Messenger Rooms — 1,000 times an hour for four hours — and encourages anyone to join.

The 4,000 reps can be anything so long as participants are physically active. Running 4,000 steps, jumping jacks or jump rope skips as some of many alternative exercises Keating suggests for the challenge.

He was diagnosed with clinical depression in 2015. He struggled and had a hard time with it before reaching out. Keating’s doctor advised him to do more physical activity to help him cope with his illness.

“I’m a certified kettlebell instructor,” he said. “It’s my go-to exercise. If I had a bad day, it’s something I can pick up, swing it and bang out a couple of reps to feel better.”

The pandemic has limited physical activity options and the event is another outlet to exercise according to Joe. Photo Courtesy of Joe Keating.

The campaign’s goal is to help erase the stigma of having a mental illness and open up a conversation about having one without feeling shame.

“I’ve always been very open about it,” said Keating. “Some people still seem to be too afraid to still talk about it and not talking about it can lead down to a dark path like suicide.”

There are approximately 4,000 suicides annually in Canada which is why the event encourages that many reps according to Keating.

Alexis Keating, 11, Joe’s daughter, will participate with her own kettlebell lifts for the event. Photo Courtesy of Joe Keating.

When the event was put on social media, the response was overwhelmingly positive in ways Keating had not anticipated.

“It was way bigger than what I was expecting. “ he said. “I thought it was going to be with family and friends and in my close-knit group. I have people from Vegas, Calgary and a team from Montreal going.”

If the event is successful, it could become an annual challenge that could include fundraising said Keating.

The free event will run on April 24 at 10:00 a.m. Head to the event’s Facebook Page for more details.

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