Today we will be talking about Anna and Mursel’s incredible story of bringing their son from Ukraine.
90 Day Fiance season 7 Stars Anna and Mursel had their first baby together.
Anna was already a mom to three children
before she met Mursel in a beekeeping group on Facebook.
Anna and Mursel appeared on 90 Day Fiance in 2019
when Mursel arrived to the United States on a K1 visa
The couple dealt with a major language barrier and culture clash.
Mursel was hiding from his religious family the fact that Anna has three children
Additionally, he was extremely homesick
Their couple's drama culminated in Mursel leaving the U.S. to Turkey before the couple got married within 90 Days.
But when Mursel was in Turkey the couple had reconciled
and he was granted an exception to come back to the United States on the same visa,
while usually the holders of K-1 visa who leave before they get married have to re-apply for the visa from scratch.
The couple got married hours before Mursel’s visa expired.
Anna and Mursel became show’s unlikely success story
and despite their differences they made their relationship work.
They became not only a married couple, but also business partners.
The pair started selling honey under the brand “Beauty and the bees”.
Mursel developed carpentry skills and the couple is also selling furniture.
On their season of 90 Day Fiance, Mursel had issues communicating with Anna’s kids,
and her oldest son, Gino, even refused to come to the wedding.
After the show Mursel decided to step up as a step-father, but having his own children was something very important to him.
Anna revealed she cannot carry any more children, so the couple opted for surrogacy.
Mursel shared his family wouldn’t like the fact that Anna didn’t carry the baby
When the couple was ready to grow their family, Anna and Mursel went for an egg-retrieval
The couple had to travel 16 hours from Nebraska to Syracuse, New York
The procedure was successful, and the clinic fertilized the couple’s embryos.
The reason behind the couple choosing this particular clinic was the cost
The clinic co-operated with Ukrainian surrogates to cut costs.
In January of 2022 the couple announced that they are expecting their baby via Ukrainian surrogate in May.
At the end of February, the war in Ukraine unfolded
and the surrogate carrying the couple’s baby had to flee her home to Western Ukraine.
With the baby being born prematurely, the couple had to take a difficult journey to Ukraine.
Anna shared a story of the couple’s truly dramatic journey to bring their baby home.
“Mursel and I are excited to announce the birth of our son!”
Anna captioned a gallery of photos featuring their very little bundle of joy.
The couple named their baby Gokhan John
The baby's name is a Turkish forename that means "ruler of the sky"
Anna revealed that the baby was born on April 11th 2022, 5 weeks early
Anna continued, “He’s doing amazing! Just a small guy at 5.3 pounds 18 inches.”
Baby Gokhan is Anna’s fourth son and Mursel’s first.
Anna shared that the couple’s surrogate is doing well
“I was able to meet her and she’s such an amazing woman!” said Anna.
As mentioned before, Anna and Mursel had to go into Ukraine while the war was raging to retrieve their baby!
The couple had to travel to Ukraine via Poland, and as Mursel is not an U.S. citizen yet, he required a Schengen visa.
Anna and Mursel’s trip was planned and facilitated by a non profit-group.
In a shocking twist, the group discovered that Mursel’s visa was a single-entry visa,
and while he could enter Ukraine, he would not be able to get back out to Europe.
Therefore the couple made a decision that would have to stay in Poland, while Anna had to travel Ukraine without him
Luckily the non-profit group, Project Dynamo, helped Anna to safely travel to and back from Ukraine
The volunteers took Anna to the border where she crossed to Ukraine on foot and was then safely transported to a hotel.
The next day they took her to pick up the baby and get the documents completed in Lviv, Ukraine.
Meanwhile she was informed that Mursel was transported to the hospital via ambulance, due to heart pain.
A volunteer stayed by his side at the hospital.
Anna crossed into Poland with their baby and reunited with Mursel.
Thankfully, Mursel’s heart was fine and bloodwork came back okay.
The whole family is now safe.
The fellow 90 day fiance cast members congratulated the couple with their new baby
The fellow season 7 cast member Michael wrote, “so beautiful! It’s a dream come true for the two of you”
One of the fans wrote “this sounds like its own TLC show!”
And Anna responded, “TLC didn’t want to follow our story”.
The fans noted that it’s a mistake on TLC’s part
and the story of baby Gokhan’s birth is more compelling that the storylines on the show lately.
Anna and Mursel’s story of retrieving their son is indeed amazing
and it’s a shame we won’t get to see it on the show.
But the most important thing is that the baby is healthy and safe.
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Thank you so much for watching