What would you be willing to do to help a sibling out?
There are no guarantees when it comes to the miracle of life but one Treasure Valley woman risked her own to carry her sister's child.
Nathan and Jesi Gifford had been trying to have a baby for awhile and were devastated by the loss of a daughter at nine days old and at having a still born son. It was tough for the entire family.
Ironically, when Jesi was pregnant with her son, her sister, Sami Baldwin, was also trying to have a baby.
"I remember thinking to myself, if anything ever happens.. if she's not able to have children or whatever, I would totally do it for her," Jesi Gifford said. "I just never thought it would be the other way around. I never would have thought."
But, after an adoption fell through for the Caldwell couple, Jesi remembered Sami's offer, years prior, to be their surrogate mother. Baldwin had since been successful with her pregnancy but, as Jesi found out, was still willing to carry her child.
"I have two of my own. So, it was kind of.. I know what they lost," Baldwin said. "And, she's my sister."
The sisters live close by each other. So, it made being super supportive throughout Baldwin's pregnancy easy for Jesi and Nathan.
"We could go over whenever we wanted, and she was over there all the time," Nathan Gifford said. "We knew how she was doing and what was going on."
Luckily, the pregnancy went off without a hitch. On Oct. 22, Charlee Samantha Gifford was born.
One day, Charlee will hear the story of how she came to be but for now is content just being held in her mother's arms.
"I couldn't imagine not having her.. she's.. pretty perfect," Jesi Gifford concluded.
To this day, doctors aren't quite sure what exactly went wrong with Jesi Gifford's pregnancies. She has no family history of problems in the past.
