After years of planning, uncertainty and hope, Michael Lindsay and Matthew Schueller have finally become fathers.
The Portland husbands announced the arrival of their son, Theodore James, who was born on August 10, 2026.
Theodore weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces.
“Welcome to the world, Theodore James,” Michael and Matt wrote while introducing their baby boy.
“We’ve been waiting to meet you for a very long time! You are loved more than you could know.”
The words carry particular meaning because followers of the couple have watched much of that wait unfold publicly.
Michael and Matt began seriously pursuing surrogacy at the beginning of 2021.
They started researching egg donation, IVF clinics, surrogacy agencies and the legal and financial realities involved in building a family as two gay men.
They quickly discovered that wanting a child and knowing how to make that happen were two very different things.
Matthew later wrote that the process initially felt like a mysterious black curtain.
The couple struggled to find clear information about the different paths available to queer prospective parents.
They interviewed fertility clinics and agencies and eventually found an egg donor.
Thirty eggs were retrieved during their IVF process.
Only five embryos ultimately reached viability.
Four were genetically connected to Matthew and one to Michael.
The result left the couple both grateful and nervous.
They had originally imagined having twins, with each man being the biological father of one child.
With only one viable embryo from Michael, they knew there might not be many opportunities to achieve that exact dream.
The financial stakes made every decision even more complicated.
Michael and Matt have spoken publicly about how fertility benefits frequently treat same-sex couples differently from heterosexual couples.
Many insurance policies provide fertility coverage after a heterosexual couple has tried unsuccessfully to conceive for a specified period.
A gay male couple can never meet that requirement in the same way.
As a result, expensive fertility treatments, egg donation and surrogacy can remain largely uncovered.
Matthew estimated in 2023 that an uncomplicated surrogacy journey could cost between $175,000 and $220,000.
Those barriers inspired Michael and Matt to begin sharing far more than their own personal story.
They launched a podcast called Who’s Your Daddy? to explore the different ways LGBTQ+ people can become parents.
The show covered surrogacy, IVF, private adoption, foster-to-adopt and other paths to family building.
They interviewed experts as well as other queer parents about the practical, emotional and legal challenges they encountered.
The goal was partly educational and partly personal.
Michael and Matt repeatedly admitted that they were learning alongside their listeners.
The irony was that while helping other queer couples understand parenthood, their own journey remained unresolved.
For years, followers watched them research, wait and hope.
That made their pregnancy announcement earlier this year especially emotional.
By July, their gestational carrier had reached 37 weeks.
The couple posted ultrasound photographs while admitting there was almost too much emotion to put into words.
Their original due date was August 26.
Theodore apparently had other plans.
He arrived on August 10, more than two weeks early.
The photographs and video shared after his birth show two exhausted-looking but delighted new fathers holding their newborn son.
The moment is the latest chapter in a relationship that itself began through an unlikely series of events.
Long before they were husbands, Matthew posted a YouTube video publicly coming out as gay.
The video went viral.
More than a year later and approximately 1,300 miles away, Michael saw it while struggling with his own sexuality.
Matthew’s openness inspired Michael to come out and record a video response of his own.
The connection eventually moved beyond YouTube.
Within months, they were living together.
Michael and Matt married in 2018.
They subsequently built a large online following by sharing travel, relationships, mental health, body positivity and everyday married life.
Matthew trained as a nurse while Michael worked as a dentist.
For years, however, one ambition remained constant.
They wanted to become parents.
Matthew once wrote that growing up gay in a conservative part of Oregon, he had struggled even to imagine that marriage might be possible for him.
Starting a family felt even more unimaginable.
That is part of what makes Theodore’s arrival bigger than an ordinary influencer baby announcement.
It represents a future that neither man necessarily grew up believing was available to him.
That experience is familiar to many LGBTQ+ people.
For generations, coming out often meant accepting the possibility that traditional milestones such as marriage and parenthood might never happen.
Marriage equality changed part of that equation.
Advances in fertility treatment, surrogacy and adoption have changed another part.
But those paths remain complicated, expensive and politically contested.
Michael and Matt chose to document that reality rather than presenting their journey as effortless.
They showed the research.
They talked about the money.
They discussed failed expectations and difficult decisions.
And they continued hoping.
Now, after more than five years since they first began exploring surrogacy, there is finally a baby at the end of that story.
His name is Theodore James.
Two husbands are now two dads.
And judging from their first words to him, Theodore has arrived in a family that has been waiting a very long time to love him.
📷 @michaelandmatt
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