Gloria Settelmayer cries like she’s pregnant – laughing one minute, wiping away tears the next. You’ll have to forgive her, though, because her friend from high school is pregnant.
And that friend is carrying her child.
Settelmayer greets Amanda Greenberg with a smile at her Goshen Township home in May. The two have been friends for years, even though they joke about how mean Settelmayer was back in school. This year, their friendship has evolved into something more, just when Settelmayer needed it most.
Already a mother of three, Greenberg wears loose-fitting clothing because she just came from school, where she teaches third grade and doesn’t want to prompt questions about gestational surrogacy. Greenberg is 14 weeks pregnant.
Settelmayer touches Greenberg's belly.
"You’re showing,” she says.
This is the first time Settelmayer almost cries today. It won’t be the last. A few minutes later, she cries while looking through a scrapbook she once made for her sister-in-law, Amy Polly. Polly grew up with Settelmayer and Greenberg. In 2017, Polly was the one pregnant with Settelmayer's child. Settelmayer has done this before.
She just never thought she’d be doing it again.
Born in a small town in Clermont County, Settelmayer always wanted a big family. Her husband is an only child and both of his parents are gone. But each pregnancy with their two boys got harder and harder. It wasn’t just throwing up nine times a day. It was seizures and medications. It was miscarriage after miscarriage, both early in pregnancy and late.
