Families Out Loud

♥️ Families Out Loud brought San Diego together, and we are still feeling the love. Two days of honest education, real storytelling, and the kind of intimate community you can only find in person.

Intended parents, surrogacy providers, IVF experts, fertility lawyers, mental health professionals, and financial advisors all shared one space with one mission: helping people build families. San Diego’s theme said it best. Intended parents are in control of their journey, and every panel, story, and conversation proved it.

Thank you to every volunteer, attendee, sponsor, and speaker who made The Pendry weekend so special. Family building is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make, and you deserve an ethical, inclusive team beside you every step of the way.

Where are we headed next?
Washington DC, August 21 and 22. Anyone exploring surrogacy, IVF, egg donation, or any assisted third party reproduction path is welcome.

Tickets at FOL-DC.eventbrite.com 🎟️

One. More. Day.

🍹 Tomorrow night, Families Out Loud kicks off San Diego with our welcome cocktail hour at Nason’s inside The Pendry Hotel. Mingle, drinks, snacks, and the community you have been waiting to meet.

🎤 Then Saturday is the main event in The Pendry’s Grand Ballroom: a full day of education, expert panels, and real resources so you leave knowing exactly what your next step is.

🎟️ Final tickets at FOLsandiego.eventbrite.com, link in bio!

Families Out Loud San Diego is just 2 days away!

Join us July 10 and 11 at The Pendry Hotel for two days of family building education covering IVF, surrogacy, and egg, s***m, and embryo donation. Friday cocktail hour, Saturday main event, and 20+ clinics, agencies, and experts all in one room. Your seat is still waiting.

Tickets: FOLsandiego.eventbrite.com (link in bio)

Families Out Loud believes every child born through ART deserves to grow up already knowing their story. 📕

Research is consistent:
Kids who always knew do best. So we put the how into five small rules: start early, use the real words, make it a story of wanting, let it grow with them, and welcome every rerun of the question.

In our house it begins with “before you were born, Dada and Dada needed some very special help.” But that is our experience, not a rulebook. It is up to you to tell it the way that feels natural and right for YOU. And yes, this is a post-journey topic, but the families who feel most ready are the ones who started thinking about it long before baby arrived.

Conversations like this one, and so much more, are exactly what our events are built for.

📍Join us in San Diego, July 10 and 11 at The Pendry Hotel.
🗣️ Comment “STORY” and we will DM you the ticket link.

Families Out Loud gets one question more than any other: “What do you actually do?” So we’re answering it out loud.

We help people build families. That means surrogacy, IVF, egg donation, s***m donation, embryo donation, fertility preservation, and everything in between. It means gay couples, straight couples, trans parents, single parents by choice, anyone staring down infertility and ANYONE else wondering how they’ll ever afford it, find the right doctor, or just figure out step one.

Slide one is real questions people bring us every single day. If any of them sound like you, there are two ways in. Come spend two days with us at a Families Out Loud event, where fertility experts, agencies, industry professionals attorneys, and parents who have lived it answer your questions face to face. Or message us right now at [email protected] or in our DMs we can refer you to a trusted partner and help you navigate the process.

San Diego is up next, July 10 and 11 at The Pendry. Washington D.C. and San Francisco close out the 2026 tour.

Tickets available now 🎟️ folsandiego.eventbrite.com

Visit our website for more info 💻 familiesoutloudevents.com

Families Out Loud is beyond honored to welcome these voices to the stage at Family Building San Diego, July 10-11 at The Pendry Hotel. Come listen and meet them!

Elizabeth Carr — the first IVF baby born in the United States, now a mother and IVF advocate herself. Her story is living proof of how far this field has come, and where it’s still going.

Dr. Arnel Calvario Ripkens — intended parent, founder, and Doctor of Occupational Therapy, bringing both lived experience and professional insight to the conversation.

Dustin Ripkens — intended parent and fitness coach, sharing his journey to fatherhood with honesty and heart.

Arnel and Dustin are husbands who built their family together and have been going on that journey with the support of Families Out Loud’s guidance, and they’re joining us to share that journey firsthand alongside Elizabeth’s (a fierce advocate of Families Out Loud) incredibly unique perspective on the earliest days of IVF and where we are now.

Come hear their stories, ask your questions, and connect with a community that gets it.

📍 The Pendry Hotel, San Diego
🗓️ July 10-11
🎟️ Tickets at FOLsandiego.eventbrite.com

Families Out Loud wishes you a happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸