Campaign Story

My wife, Isabella, is the strongest person I know. Not only is she the survivor of recurrent child sexual abuse, she’s spent her life transforming a past full of pain into a present and future full of power. In 2014, she created a non-profit to help survivors of abuse heal through dance. In her spare time, she helps re-home foster kittens and supports animal rights charities. I mean it when I say she’s a giver in every sense of the word.

The fact that she’s chosen me to live her life with is one of my greatest blessings. And the day we decided to begin our fertility journey was one of the most exciting times in my life.

We jumped into the fertility world fully committed. We tracked ovulation, basal temps, and read all the research. We met with fertility doctors, ran blood work, and ultrasounds. You name it, we did it.

When the time finally came, we tried our first IUI. It was unsuccessful. Two more failed IUIs led us to the doctor of our dreams where we tried IVF for the first time. One uterine surgery, tons of shots, and a retrieval and transfer later… our clinic confirmed we were pregnant. We’ve never felt so elated, so connected, so charged with purpose.

We went full steam into planning. Isabella did everything she could to take care of her body and our growing boy. I read every book on the market for labor, delivery, and parenting. By all intents and purposes, we were as prepared as we could be for our baby, Winter Luca. His name means the bringer of rebirth and light.

But at 35 weeks, our world stopped. Five weeks before his due date, our baby no longer had a heartbeat.

We were deep in grief trying to process this loss. We both dove head first into self-care and caring for each other. Our default has been to lean in when things get hard, so we doubled down on leaning in. This strengthened our relationship while also reminding us that our family journey is not over. We are now ready to try again.

We are humbly seeking support for our next IVF cycle. We took out loans for the first and are still paying off medical bills from the extended hospital stay after losing Winter. We would greatly appreciate any support you can provide. Any amount helps. Building our family is all we want to do, and we are determined to make it happen. With your support, anything is possible. Thank you so much for your time.