After welcoming a beautiful little girl named Kaavia in November [1], it seems like Gabrielle Union [2] and her husband Dwayne Wade can't get enough of parenthood [3]. Although the actress has been more than candid about having several miscarriages [4] and ultimately getting diagnosed with adenomyosis [5] — when the tissue that normally lines the uterus starts grows into the muscular wall of the uterus — she told Shondaland that she wasn't sold on surrogacy in the beginning.

The conversation began once Gabrielle first learned about having adenomyosis. "I just froze. Everything was in slow motion [6]," she said. Although her doctors suggested that going the surrogacy route was the easiest path to motherhood for her, Gabrielle was concerned that people would judge her for not being a "real" mother. "Over time, and with therapy and communication with my husband, I made peace with getting over my fear," she explained. "But that was a tough one to let go of."

While the actress certainly didn't know what to expect from her surrogate — who was actually a gestational carrier [7] — she was pleasantly surprised to learn that she and the woman carrying her child had similar interests. In fact, the 46-year-old mom still keeps in touch with her.

"So when we met, she walked in and was like, 'Oh!' I didn't know what that meant, and she was like, 'I have your book on hold at four different libraries.' In that first meeting, we talked about the books we love [8], the stacks of books we want to get through," she said. "Little Fires Everywhere, so many more. That, for me, was the sign."