How two women came together to help their sister become a mom

While motherhood is a cherished dream for many, Jaclyn Fieberg faced daunting challenges in her natural journey to conceive. However, her two sisters were there to help make her dreams of motherhood come true. According to TODAY, Fieberg's younger sister donated her eggs and her older sister acted as a surrogate mother to give Fieberg the child she always wanted. "Every single roadblock that I felt like we could hit, we were hitting," Fieberg spoke about her fertility journey.

Fieberg, who is an elementary school teacher, has been married to a firefighter and sergeant in the Air National Guard, named Greg since 2018. At first, the couple took the usual route of IVF to conceive but none of those IVF rounds were successful as Fieberg suffered three miscarriages. During some medical evaluation, it was revealed that Fieberg had endometriosis and a chromosomal condition that has been affecting her fertility and chances of getting pregnant. Dr. Matthew Lederman, the RMA of New York, Westchester suggested Fieberg use an egg donor. Thankfully, her sister was more than happy to become the donor.

"I just knew it was something I had to do for her," Fieberg's younger sister Meredith McIntyre said. “I don’t know how she went through the journey that she’s been through. It’s been years and it was so hard for her family to see her struggle. It was just blow after blow.” When the first attempt to transfer McIntyre's donor egg to Fieberg was unsuccessful, her older sister Stephanie Corritori, volunteered to become a surrogate mother. "Jaclyn said, 'Stephanie, will you carry?'" Corritori, a mother of two, recalled. "And my answer was, 'Yes.' Because it was always, 'Yes.' I would have given anything." "Stephanie and I always said to Jaclyn, ‘Whatever you need, we’ll be there,’” McIntyre mentioned.

Once the news of a positive pregnancy was confirmed on June 2, 2023, the sisters were overjoyed. “Once the transfer took, I remember I fell to my knees and I just hoped and prayed,” said Corritori, who had the responsibility to carry the pregnancy to full term for her sister and hence, she had to remain positive. "I remember I have a playlist that I listened to, and it’s called, 'We’ve Got This' because it was a team; it was everybody." Finally, the sisters welcomed the baby on February 1, 2024, and was named Emersyn Clare. "She’s going to know her story, and she’s going to know how wanted she was, and that her aunts did the most selfless, incredible thing," Fieberg told her newborn daughter.

The sisters appeared in Studio 1A to chat with host Hoda Kotb and even brought baby Emersyn along. "How is motherhood?" Kotd asked Fieberg on the set. "It's amazing," said Fieberg. "It's better than I even dreamt of and I can't even believe that we're here right now and that she's finally here." Kotb expressed her thoughts to the new mom and said how she couldn't "believe what Fieberg had endured all this time" and then asked her if she, at any point, had given up hopes of becoming a mother.

"I struggled with that quite a bit," said Fieberg while fighting back tears. "I just couldn't give it up. I've always wanted to be a mom. I was invested, and I kept praying that we'd finally have a miracle."

Turning to Corritori, Hoda asked them to share the special playlist they made during that tough time and how it helped them to navigate the complicated journey of motherhood. "I created that playlist a month before we started IVF, and I would listen to it every day," Corritori said. She added how the song "My Wish" by Rascal Flats "reminded her a lot about Jaclyn and her struggles."

She further added that songs like “Most People Are Good” by Luke Bryan, “When You Believe” by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston, “I’m Still Standing” by Elton John and “I Can Only Imagine” by MercyMe are some of the tracks that they played on loop. "I just hope she always knows how much we wanted her, that we were not willing to put it to rest until she was here and that not only do my husband, Greg, and I want her — her special aunts — and her grandparents and everybody was rooting for us," said Fieberg. "She's finally here. So we're just so grateful." "I feel like babies come right on time," Hoda responded. "And this little angel is right on time for your family."