Campaign Story

Hi there! We, B. and J. have been trying for quite some time, both on our own, and with limited, low-tech, medical intervention to bring our baby into the world. We have recently had two biochemical pregnancies (very early miscarriages) and were told that this was actually a good sign! J. can get pregnant, but we just have to find a decent healthy egg.  A good egg.  We’re both good eggs, you’d think we could manage to fertilize and implant a few, or one.

We’ve exhausted our available insurance, which doesn’t cover IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) and are going to pay for treatment out of pocket through a well known local fertility clinic. We’re going to do this through a combination of indiegogo, savings, acquisition of debts, and a loan against our retirement savings.  We consider ourselves very blessed and very lucky to have found love so late in life because we both dated some real doozies before finding each other. (The humorless vegan, the fake Secret Agent, and the last minute can-you-buy-me-dinner-woman always make us laugh. In retrospect.)

We want to have a baby together and raise it with values like:
* Knowing the difference between: you’re and your; there, they’re, and their; and too, two, and to.
* Hate is not a family value; respect others.
* Love your neighbor, even if they seem to suck sometimes (especially then.) Our faith is important to us.
* Take responsibility for your community, and work toward awareness of critical issues affecting other communities beyond your own.
* Vegetables are good for you; so is ice cream.

The thing is, we’re not guaranteed success at this pregnancy thing, but given J’s “advanced maternal age” time is running out to try. (And by the way, as you can see, she takes excellent care of herself. She has excellent egg reserve so the odds are better for us than for most geriatric senior potential mommies of her age.)  And we want to try everything we can before giving up, even if it means paying back debts for a few years.  That said, we’d like to reduce the debt we’re acquiring which is how your supportive gifts will help.
We’re asking for your help funding a single round of IVF medications which will cost between $5000-$7000. And our goal is on the low side of that amount. That seems to be a totally achievable goal, don’t you think?

What We Need & What You Get

The whole treatment shebang (see what we did there?) is going to cost around $32,000 for IVF, ICSI, Assisted Hatching, and medications. We’re participating in the multi-cycle discount program which gets us two IVF attempts. Medications are separate from the base cost of $18,000 so there are two separate 5-7K rounds to budget and consider.

Between taxes, fees from indiegogo, paypal, and credit cards from your lovely and very much appreciated gifts, even if we reach our goal, we won’t get the full amount of one round of medication, so of course, we’re hoping to go above and beyond! A number of friends, however, expressed their heartfelt desire to contribute to the opportunity to help us try to bring a little person into the world.
The kicker is… we have to pay the full amount up front… before we start the treatment (in early September). There will be no opportunity to gradually acquire medical bills and pay them off with our incomes. Up front payment, all at once, required. Ouch.