We’re so happy to share a conversation close to our hearts. Our Co-Founders, Kaitlin Pinkerton-Locher, and her mother, Darlene Pinkerton, sat down together on the AllPaths podcast, two generations of trailblazers, one remarkable family story.

The AllPaths Podcast comes from AllPaths Family Building, a nonprofit devoted to supporting, celebrating, and advocating for all the different ways there are to grow a family. Each episode shares real stories and expert insight for anyone navigating the family-building journey, which made it the perfect place for Darlene and Kaitlin to tell theirs.

And what a story it is. When Darlene and her husband, attorney Tom Pinkerton, set out to build their family, they found a new path forward. They provided the genetic “ingredients” to create their daughter, Kaitlin, and because Darlene’s “oven wasn’t working,” Tom’s sister, Judy, lovingly offered to use hers to help bake the cake. That gentle metaphor became the way their family explained gestational surrogacy, a process so new at the time that Kaitlin is believed to be one of the first people in the world born this way.

In the episode, Darlene and Kaitlin open up about the landmark legal victory that followed, how honest conversations helped Kaitlin proudly own her story from kindergarten onward, and how those same values of transparency, openness, and child-centered care shape everything they do today at A Perfect Match and Coast to Coast Sperm Donation.

Settle in and give it a listen.