Campaign Story

There is so much I can tell you about Tyler and I. If you even know us, then you know we are meant for each other. There is not a day that goes by that we don’t talk about each other to one of our co-workers or family members. We have shared a lot of great times, but we have endured a lot of hard times. 🩷 A lot of people will tell you that they have found their soulmate and you just blow it off and say, “yeah, whatever,” but let me tell you our story for those of you that don’t know us…

2006- We meet in the 7th grade as fresh middle school students. Some of our friends helped us meet on the good ole Yahoo messenger. Tyler and I was so young and I knew he was someone that I wouldn’t be able to just forget about if something happened to our relationship. He was always trying to be the cool kid and I was just trying not to screw up the nice girl routine. We got into trouble with teachers all the time in our free time at the lockers cause they didn’t like kissing apparently. 😆

2008- We continued to date going into freshman year and realized maybe we wanted to see other people. Well, that didn’t last long because we both knew we couldn’t do without each other. It’s so funny how being so young and in love makes you feel. Your strict parents, high school teachers, and loud friends think you’re crazy because they think it will never work out.

2010- As soon as we turn 16 we both got a job at Dairy Queen together. Now I know you’re thinking, “if they break up, you’ll still have to work with each other and that’s a terrible idea!” WRONG…we worked so good together and got to spend extra time and money on things we wanted for each other.

2012- Senior year is when things get difficult because college planning comes into play. You don’t want to hold each other back, but you don’t want to seem selfish for not thinking about the wants of each other. I knew I was looking into becoming a nurse and Tyler was wanting to do something in the medical field also. TWO days after graduation, we moved into together.

2014- Tyler and I become CNA’s and both of us start working at the nursing home together. We were so good at our job and if you’ve ever been a CNA, then you know you need teamwork to make your day better. By this point, this makes the second job we have had together. We both loved working there and made lots of life long friends.

2016- Tyler decided to get his CCMA certification and started working at another job. I got to say, it sucked that we wouldn’t be driving to work together anymore.

2017- I got accepted into the nursing program and started taking classes. Everything seemed fine, until they wasn’t.

2018- After work one day Tyler was telling me that something didn’t feel right. His had felt a lump in his scrotum and his lower back had been killing him for weeks. He had put off going to the doctor because it was winter time and he didn’t feel like it was an issue.

2019 (early months)- Life doesn’t always go the way we plan, and sometimes we learn the hard way that what God gives, he can always take away. At 24 years old, on February 9th, he was officially diagnosed with Testicular Cancer stage 3C which meant he had cancer in his lymph nodes as well in the back of the abdomen. You don’t really know what scared is until you think about your other half dying after multiple sleepless nights crying yourself to sleep, but not loud enough to wake them because you don’t want them to know how you feel or worry them more. In this life, you just never know what the future holds. It was decided that he would have surgery and soon after undergo 4 rounds of BEP strong chemotherapy. (3 weeks is 1 round of chemo = 12 weeks of chemo treatments) With no time to react, we didn’t have time to do any kind of sperm banking which REALLY SUCKS later, because we soon learned after his sperm count was ZERO (no motility, dead).
We will always and forever be grateful for the Hope Lodge that we stayed in while taking this journey, and the amount of kindness they showed us. After his last round of chemotherapy we were told that we needed to wait a month before we have another scan so the last treatment can take an effect. Sooo, we decide to live under the circumstances and take a cruise to move forward and not look back. We had the best time together! When returning, we were so nervous! We done Tyler’s scan and discovered that his lymph nodes were shrunk enough that he didn’t have to have a RPLND!! (Which is a MAJOR open surgery!) We could move on into surveillance with yearly scans, Praise God!
2019 (late months)- I decide the best way to move on is to get back in college. So Tyler goes back to work and I go to school to become a Certified Surgical Technician. We are slowly trying to get back to the way life was before. I get a job at the hospital as a CST and make some life long friends there. We know in the back of our minds, that children is going to be an issue moving forward.

2023- I’m working at a surgery center and Tyler is a referral and diagnostic leader. At this point, we have never tried to do any interventions for trying to become pregnant. Since I have PCOS, I knew that this would be a hard task to pull off. So we decided to try an IUI procedure…..IUI #1 = FAILED. We were told that it may take more than one…..IUI #2 = FAILED. Defeat is an understatement. We just think at this point that maybe it’s not meant to be, but we try to keep strong.

NOW…2024 – After mentally and physically deciding we are ready, we have decided to pursue the procedure of IVF. We know that we have lots of faith, family, and friends that have our backs. However, IVF is expensive and we need help to be able to put our dream into motion.

I have no doubt that Tyler and I can AND will be parents one day. I’d like to forget all the reasons that it wouldn’t work, and believe the one reason that it will. Even if you don’t understand our journey, just know where we’ve been and believe me BABY, we’re not giving up! 🩷💙