Campaign Story

We’re the Payne family! My name is Anika Payne, and my husband is Thomas Payne. I am a 2nd grade teacher in a low-income area, and my husband is working to earn his doctorate in math at UNC-Greensboro with the goal of becoming a college math professor. We have a gorgeous pit bull named Buffy (after the Vampire Slayer of course) who is the cuddliest dog ever.

We’re here because I have two rare medical conditions. The first is Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia which, among other things, messes with your hormones (progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, etc). I also have Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (or POI). Essentially my egg production is slowing down and starting to fail, even though I’m only 32. The typical treatment for POI would be to use donor eggs rather than my own, but we’re taking a leap of faith and using my eggs anyway.

I’ve wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember. I went into elementary education because it was the closest career to parenthood. I’ve served the past 9 years working to help low income children become life-long learners and become their best selves. I’ve dedicated my life to children, so it was devastating to me when we found out that we only had about a 4% chance of having kids of our own naturally. It was even more devastating a few months later when we did get pregnant only for it to end in a miscarriage less than a week later.

Going into IVF is not something my husband or I take lightly. After much prayer, consideration, and even pastoral counseling, we want to make sure that we go into this process from a biblical standpoint. We believe that Infertility is caused by the brokenness in the world caused by sin, and that IVF is one of the technologies that can help repair something that sin broke. The Enemy hates families, and hates children, and it’s very evident to us that our infertility is a form of spiritual attack. We believe that all life comes from God and God alone. We want to honor that belief by doing everything in our power not to destroy embryos during this process. And if we are blessed with a child, we will give all the glory to God.

As a teacher and a graduate student, money is fairly tight. Our insurance does not cover much of our infertility treatment at all, so we need your help to be able to afford this treatment to build our family. We also need support through prayer. Please pray for us as we go through this long, arduous, lonely journey, and prayerfully consider donating to help us build our family and bring our little one into the world.