Campaign Story

A few years ago we announced that we would be seeking fertility treatment to start our family due to recurrent losses. We were blessed beyond measure with the opportunity made possible by our friends, family, and complete strangers to make our dream of having a child a reality. Sully is the absolute joy of our lives and we are so grateful to be his parents. He would not be here without the prayers and generosity of you all. At the time of our treatment with Sully, we received the diagnosis of ‘unexplained infertility’. What a daunting thing to be told that there is no explanation as to why my body could not naturally carry a healthy full-term pregnancy. After Sully was born we decided to start trying for a second baby after he was a year old. We of course were not sure how long it would take given our history. Nonetheless we remained hopeful as couples with infertility issues sometimes have those issues ‘resolved’ after a successful pregnancy and they have no issues conceiving a second time. However, in November of last year, surprise we found out we were pregnant. I made an appointment with my midwife to confirm with blood work a few days after the home test and a few days later we were told that we were going through another loss. Not to discount our losses from before, but this one hurt so much more. I think having Sully has a lot to do with that. It was hard. It still is hard for me to talk about. We decided to go ahead and start trying for another baby after we both decided it felt like the right time especially if it was going to take us longer given our history. After a few months, I went to my midwife and asked for more testing and they referred us back to our fertility specialist, and in July we had our consultation with our fertility specialist. After that consultation, we found out that our specialist believes IUI is our best route to conceiving successfully, again. However, due to the economy and inflation, the prices of our treatment have gone up from what they were just a few years ago. We also no longer have my mom’s insurance which helped cover some of the costs of the testing and procedures needed to proceed with the IUI. We were crushed. We had hoped that it would be something as simple as a medicated cycle and monitoring, but our specialist does not feel that would work for us. We know this is a big ask and we know that nothing is owed to us. We are hoping that with the help of our friends and families, we will be able to do a round of fertility treatment in hopes of growing our family and giving Sully a sibling. We thought of doing another puzzle piece fundraiser so that Sullivan and his future sibling have a physical reminder of all the people who prayed and hoped alongside their parents for them to be. I created a new puzzle with one of my all-time favorite Bible verses on it that is a reminder that God always has a plan though we may not always know it or see it he always has a plan. The plan is to write
the names of those that donated on the back of the puzzle piece so that we can one day look back and see all those that prayed and hoped for our baby with us. We know times are hard on everyone so we are only asking for what you feel in your heart to donate or if you can simply share to help our story get out there. Our current goal is $2200. This covers one treatment cycle and also helps cover the cost of the medication needed for the cycle. It also covers some of the cost of genetic testing our clinic does to check for any genetic markers that could affect the pregnancy from being successful. We also ask for prayers as you can imagine this journey is incredibly emotionally and mentally taxing at times. We are grateful for our village and we would not have our sweet boy without you all. Hopefully, with your help again we can give him a sibling to grow up with