Campaign Story

My husband and I met in college. On our 7th anniversary together, we got married at a campground in the style of a family camping trip, complete with campfires and s’mores. In each other, we find our balance. He brings me out of my shell, I offer my presence to help him feel comfortable looking inward. I bring him out of his comfort zone on spontaneous adventure, he shows me the value of rest and comfort. I remind him the self-discipline of planning ahead, he reminds me the necessity of enjoying the now.

As soon as we returned from our honeymoon, we were ready to start trying to expand our family. After a lot of tears over negative pregnancy tests, we started testing. He was diagnosed with azoospermia. After 4 years of trying and testing and procedures, we are now ready to attempt IVF at a center that has new technology specifically to address finding the few sperm in azoospermic semen. This facility is our only hope of success, but is more costly than other facilities – $10,000 more than what we had expected and saved for.

I work for a nonprofit organization and he is a high school teacher. Because we chose to work within our passions to make the world a better place, we do not have large paychecks or the best insurance. Our insurance does not cover fertility at all. We have been saving up and making financial investments to build a future for our family so that we can welcome a child with a home, reliable transportation, and financial stability. The infertility journey had to become another part of those financial plans, for which we thought we were prepared, but have fallen short of the high cost of our only remaining option.

We’ve taken, step by step, a road of percentages, chances, likelihoods, operations, and bills unanticipated. Thank you for considering supporting our dream for a family.