logo
How a Tennessee woman turned surrogate for her former high school teacher

How a Tennessee woman turned surrogate for her former high school teacher

Yahoo08-02-2025

Duck River, Tennessee — For as long as they've been married, Ashley and Spencer Totty of Duck River, Tennessee, have dreamed of raising more than just the cows they have on their farm.
The former high school teacher and her utility lineman husband, married since October 2014, both really wanted a family.
"I've always wanted to be a mom," the 35-year-old Ashley told CBS News. "And we were diagnosed with unexplained infertility. And we still don't know why."
The couple had five miscarriages. In vitro fertilization treatments didn't work, and the dream faded.
That is when Ashley received a message described by Spencer as "completely out of the blue." Now, she believes it was sent by God. But at the time it came in the form of a note through Facebook Messenger, sent by a former student from long ago who had heard what the couple was going through.
"It's weighed heavy on my heart for several years now," the note from 27-year-old Hannah Dearman read. "Idk (I don't know) where you are with your journey to motherhood, or what your circumstances are. However, If you ever need a surrogate, I'd love to help you become a mom. I hope this isn't weird, but I love you and feel like you're a wonderful person and would be the best mom. I have prayed for you often."
How did Ashley respond?
"I was like, you know what, at this point, nothing is crazy to me," Ashley said.
Dearman, a mother of three, remembers her old teacher vividly.
"She was just so loving and kind," Dearman told CBS News. "And she's caring. She has a great personality."
So even though she had hardly seen Ashley since graduation, Dearman offered to carry her baby for free.
"I needed to fulfill this," Dearman said.
Dearman gave birth to Sophie Leigh Totty on July 29, 2024. Sophie is now about 7 months old and as happy as they come. She is a bubbly bundle of proof that good begets good, and often, miracles come to those who deserve them most.
"It reassures me that there's a tremendous amount of positivity in the world," Spencer said.
"She is so selfless," Ashley said of Dearman. "She's an angel on earth."
Arab-Americans who voted for Trump react to Gaza takeover plan
Search for plane that went missing off Alaska with 10 people on board
Netanyahu's response on U.S. soldiers in Gaza for Trump's plan

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

JetBlue flight from Chicago rolls off runway and into grass in Boston
JetBlue flight from Chicago rolls off runway and into grass in Boston

Chicago Tribune

time3 hours ago

  • Chicago Tribune

JetBlue flight from Chicago rolls off runway and into grass in Boston

A JetBlue flight landing at Boston's Logan International Airport rolled off the runway and into the grass on Thursday, an airport spokesperson said. No one on JetBlue flight 312 was injured, but the runway remained closed Thursday afternoon and a ground stop on all flights was in effect. Meanwhile, crews assessed the aircraft and passengers were bussed to the terminal, said Samantha Decker, with Massachusetts Port Authority, in an email. Passengers could be seen descending from the plane using stairs provided by emergency vehicles surrounded by dozens of emergency crews, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene. The plane was coming from Chicago. 'JetBlue flight 312 from Chicago to Boston veered off the runway and onto the grass after landing,' JetBlue said in an email. 'We will conduct a full investigation of the incident and will work closely with the relevant authorities to understand the cause.' Thursday's incident came FAA officials have acknowledged they weren't doing enough to ensure air safety. Recent polling by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that fewer Americans report feeling safe about flying this year. Additionally, an Air India passenger plane bound for London crashed into a medical college in Ahmedabad after takeoff Thursday, killing at least 240 people in one of India's worst airline disasters in decades, officials said.

The reverence for Old Glory that inspired Flag Day arose decades after Betsy Ross sewed her first
The reverence for Old Glory that inspired Flag Day arose decades after Betsy Ross sewed her first

San Francisco Chronicle​

time4 hours ago

  • San Francisco Chronicle​

The reverence for Old Glory that inspired Flag Day arose decades after Betsy Ross sewed her first

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The woman often credited with sewing the first national U.S. flag — at the request of George Washington himself, her descendants claimed — might have been puzzled by Saturday's modern Flag Day. In Betsy Ross' day, flags marked ships and told soldiers where they should move in the confusion of battlefield smoke and noise. The intense reverence many Americans feel for Old Glory arose from the Civil War, when the need to keep the banner aloft in battle led the Union army to treat the deadly job of flag bearer as a high honor — and men responded with fatal heroics. The first, local Flag Day observances came after the Civil War and eventually a federal law designated June 14 as Flag Day in 1949, under World War I combat veteran Harry Truman. He declared in a proclamation the next year that the U.S. flag symbolizes freedom and 'protection from tyranny.' Americans' attachment to their flag is imbued with feelings that in other nations might attach to a beloved monarch or an official national religion. The flag is a physical object 'that people can relate to,' said Charles Spain, director of the Flag Research Center in Houston. 'If you put a flag on a pole, the wind makes it move,' Spain, a retired Texas Court of Appeals justice, added. 'Therefore, the flag is alive.' What does Flag Day celebrate? The holiday marks the date in 1777 that the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag for what to Great Britain were rebellious American colonies. It set the now-familiar 13 alternating horizontal stripes of red and white, one for each self-declared U.S. state, along with the blue upper quadrant with white stars. The Journals of Congress from 1777 says that the stars represented 'a new constellation,' but a 1818 law mandated one white star for each state. National observances for Flag Day began well ahead of the law signed by Truman, with a proclamation issued by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Wilson's action came several decades after communities began Flag Day celebrations. In 1891, Philadelphia held its first — at one of Ross' former homes — and it evolved into an annual, weeklong Flag Fest. The small village of Waubeka, Wisconsin, north of Milwaukee, claims the first observance in 1885. According to the National Flag Day Foundation headquartered there, a 19-year-old teacher in a one-room school, Bernard Cigrand, put a small flag on his desk and had students write essays about what the flag meant to them. He advocated a national holiday for decades as he worked as a dentist in the Chicago area. When did the U.S. flag become sacred to many Americans? Lisa Acker Moulder, director of the Betsy Ross House historical site in Philadelphia, said that for Ross, conferring with Washington would have been the key point of her account. The U.S. flag wasn't as venerated before the Civil War in 1861-65 as it is now. Keeping flags aloft was crucial to maneuvering troops in Civil War battles, and that made flag bearers big targets for the enemy. They couldn't shoot back and had to stand tall, said Ted Kaye, secretary for the North American association for flag scholars, known as vexillologists. Both sides' propaganda told soldiers that carrying a flag into battle was an honor reserved for the most morally fit — and that view took hold, Kaye said. One Michigan cavalry regiment's red flag declared, 'Fear Not Death --Fear Dishonor.' 'This created this cult of honor around these battle flags, and around, by extension, the national flag,' Kaye said. Why was the Civil War so important? Civil War soldiers showed extraordinary courage under fire to keep their colors aloft, and multiple flag bearers died in single battles, said Matt VanAcker, who directs a now decades-old project at the Michigan Capitol to conserve flags from the Civil War and later conflicts. Michigan has collected about 240 old battle flags and had a display in its Capitol rotunda for decades. 'Many of the flags in our collection are covered with bullet holes,' VanAcker said. 'A lot of them have blood stains — the physical evidence of their use on the battlefield.'

The reverence for Old Glory that inspired Flag Day arose decades after Betsy Ross sewed her first
The reverence for Old Glory that inspired Flag Day arose decades after Betsy Ross sewed her first

Yahoo

time4 hours ago

  • Yahoo

The reverence for Old Glory that inspired Flag Day arose decades after Betsy Ross sewed her first

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The woman often credited with sewing the first national U.S. flag — at the request of George Washington himself, her descendants claimed — might have been puzzled by Saturday's modern Flag Day. In Betsy Ross' day, flags marked ships and told soldiers where they should move in the confusion of battlefield smoke and noise. The intense reverence many Americans feel for Old Glory arose from the Civil War, when the need to keep the banner aloft in battle led the Union army to treat the deadly job of flag bearer as a high honor — and men responded with fatal heroics. The first, local Flag Day observances came after the Civil War and eventually a federal law designated June 14 as Flag Day in 1949, under World War I combat veteran Harry Truman. He declared in a proclamation the next year that the U.S. flag symbolizes freedom and 'protection from tyranny.' Americans' attachment to their flag is imbued with feelings that in other nations might attach to a beloved monarch or an official national religion. The flag is a physical object 'that people can relate to,' said Charles Spain, director of the Flag Research Center in Houston. 'If you put a flag on a pole, the wind makes it move,' Spain, a retired Texas Court of Appeals justice, added. 'Therefore, the flag is alive.' What does Flag Day celebrate? The holiday marks the date in 1777 that the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag for what to Great Britain were rebellious American colonies. It set the now-familiar 13 alternating horizontal stripes of red and white, one for each self-declared U.S. state, along with the blue upper quadrant with white stars. The Journals of Congress from 1777 says that the stars represented 'a new constellation,' but a 1818 law mandated one white star for each state. National observances for Flag Day began well ahead of the law signed by Truman, with a proclamation issued by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Wilson's action came several decades after communities began Flag Day celebrations. In 1891, Philadelphia held its first — at one of Ross' former homes — and it evolved into an annual, weeklong Flag Fest. The small village of Waubeka, Wisconsin, north of Milwaukee, claims the first observance in 1885. According to the National Flag Day Foundation headquartered there, a 19-year-old teacher in a one-room school, Bernard Cigrand, put a small flag on his desk and had students write essays about what the flag meant to them. He advocated a national holiday for decades as he worked as a dentist in the Chicago area. When did the U.S. flag become sacred to many Americans? Lisa Acker Moulder, director of the Betsy Ross House historical site in Philadelphia, said that for Ross, conferring with Washington would have been the key point of her account. The U.S. flag wasn't as venerated before the Civil War in 1861-65 as it is now. Keeping flags aloft was crucial to maneuvering troops in Civil War battles, and that made flag bearers big targets for the enemy. They couldn't shoot back and had to stand tall, said Ted Kaye, secretary for the North American association for flag scholars, known as vexillologists. Both sides' propaganda told soldiers that carrying a flag into battle was an honor reserved for the most morally fit — and that view took hold, Kaye said. One Michigan cavalry regiment's red flag declared, 'Fear Not Death --Fear Dishonor.' 'This created this cult of honor around these battle flags, and around, by extension, the national flag,' Kaye said. Why was the Civil War so important? Civil War soldiers showed extraordinary courage under fire to keep their colors aloft, and multiple flag bearers died in single battles, said Matt VanAcker, who directs a now decades-old project at the Michigan Capitol to conserve flags from the Civil War and later conflicts. Michigan has collected about 240 old battle flags and had a display in its Capitol rotunda for decades. Replicas have replaced them so that the original banners — and pieces of banners — can be preserved as a physical link to the soldiers who fought under them. 'Many of the flags in our collection are covered with bullet holes,' VanAcker said. 'A lot of them have blood stains — the physical evidence of their use on the battlefield.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store