Lindsey Scollard Longing to have a second child amid a challenging, years-long fertility journey, Rohan Silva and his wife Kate turned to surrogacy and ultimately were matched with an American surrogate named Ava Then Kate found out she was pregnant but, not feeling particularly optimistic about the pregnancy, the couple forged ahead with their surrogacy plans Both pregnancies proceeded healthily, and Kate gave birth in July 2024, followed four months later by Ava delivering their second baby, resulting in a phenomenon known as "twiblings" After a years-long quest to have a second baby that saw Rohan and Kate Silva face heartbreak after heartbreak — including 20 unsuccessful IVF procedures, multiple miscarriages and the death of their newborn daughter Zola in 2022 — the couple turned to surrogacy. Believing there was no way Kate, 40, could conceive naturally, they were matched with an American surrogate named Ava, perThe Times. But then the unexpected happened: Kate found out she was pregnant. Not feeling particularly hopeful about the pregnancy, considering their fertility history, the couple decided to go forward with their surrogacy journey. Much to their amazement, both pregnancies progressed healthily, and the couple ultimately welcomed two babies, born 17 weeks apart. Kate gave birth first on July 24, 2024, followed by Ava four months later on Nov. 19. The close-in-age babies are a phenomenon known as "Californian twins" or "twiblings" (a combination of twin and sibling). Lindsey Scollard Rohan — a former senior policy adviser to former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron — toldThe Timesthat when people see him and Kate out with their new additions, "you can almost see the cogs in people's minds turning" as they try to make sense of two babies who are not twins but too close in age to be "proper" siblings. "Then they will approach and say, 'You know, we've all been chatting and we're wondering, er, what's the story?' " Rohan, 44, explained. "I guess there'll come a point when the age gap won't be so obvious and they will look like twins," he continued. "But for now, there are a lot of questions, and we try to be open. So far, everyone we've met has been nothing other than incredibly sweet, at least to our faces." The couple, who are also parents to a 6-year-old son named Jozef, toldThe Timesthat their surrogacy journey first began after Zola's death in 2022. Their daughter was born prematurely at 31 weeks, and her health deteriorated rapidly as she battled a bacterial infection in the NICU. She died five hours after her birth. Weeks later, they put down a deposit at a surrogacy agency in Los Angeles, where they were living at the time and had stored embryos from their previous IVF attempts. Lindsey Scollard "It was so devastating losing Zola. We were shattered and bereft, and all we could think to do was to try to channel that pain and try, somehow, to move forward, even just a tiny step, with our lives and have something positive come out of such devastation," Rohan told the outlet. "Some people did say to us, can you trust a surrogate? But then you meet the people that step forward to do this for others and you realize it's a kind of vocation for them." About a year later, Rohan and Kate were matched with Ava — a 34-year-old married mother of three from Mississippi — and they looked on virtually via a video call as their embryo was transferred to Ava at an L.A. clinic. "We really didn't think Ava would get pregnant the first time. But she did," Rohan recalled. Lindsey Scollard After Kate gave birth last summer, the family traveled to Mississippi to be in the delivery room with Ava and her husband Joe as their third child was born in November. "After our baby was born, Ava was crying with joy, Kate was crying with joy. We have pictures of them holding hands through the whole procedure," Rohan said of the two women and the special bond they formed. Since Kate was already breastfeeding their other baby, she was able to begin nursing the newborn straight away. She and Rohan chose not to reveal toThe Timeswhich child was born by surrogate. "I'm keen to talk about surrogacy, but for our babies I think it's their right to talk when they're old enough about how they were born and conceived," Rohan explained. Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. He said he hopes that as more families like his share their stories, there is a greater understanding and acceptance of surrogacy in the future. "I think as a society we've got really good at understanding that families come together in different ways — blended families, mixed families. I'd love to get to a point where surrogacy is just another of those ways," he toldThe Times, adding, "And we should just be glad that there's another loving family in the world." Read the original article onPeople