For John Kruse and Gary Beuschel, it took a village just to have one. On a late August day in 2003, John and Gary flew with grim urgency from San Francisco, where they live, to Anchorage, where their daughters were soon to be born more than three months premature at Providence Alaska Medical Center. It wasn't supposed to happen that way. Cathy, their surrogate, was supposed to give birth to healthy baby girls in San Francisco in December, when they were due. Instead, Veronica and Zola were born at 26 weeks, weighing less than two lbs each, with a tenuous grasp on life.