Campaign Story

My name is Bethany Vignes. My husband, Jared, and I have been trying to conceive for 2 years. We had been married just one week when I received a diagnosis of Lynch PMS-2 variant, passed down from my mother. In essence, it means I WILL get endometrial cancer in my lifetime. Naturally, the surefire preventive is a full hysterectomy by 35. At the time of the diagnosis, I was 25. We prayed hard for weeks before deciding NOT to get off of birth control until we had solidified our careers, finances, and new marriage. We could not have foreseen the struggles we would have to get pregnant. Fast forward two years and we are as “ready” as people can be to be parents: finances are solid, careers are thriving, marriage is fortified and strong, our health is optimal (he cycled, I am a Pilates instructor). Months began to pass. We grew impatient. A year passed and we grew afraid. That “35 year old hysterectomy” hung over my head like a sword over our heads, ever closer with every failed month of timed intercourse, IUIs, HCG injections…until we hit a breaking point. We had pushed ourselves past endurance to conceive and had failed. We were broken hearted, empty, exhausted. Any one who has been through the whirlwind that is fertility can relate to the depth of despair we had found ourselves living in. So we decided to step back. Start over. Fortify our hearts again. Heal… but always hope. Until a few days ago when I received a diagnosis of endometriosis, the fragile hope shriveled up, twitched, and died. “IVF is the only real option…” were the words we had dreaded, as it was so fully out of our budget. But here we are, facing it directly. When we found this site, new life was breathed into that weary and broke hope. I’ve watched my precious husband ache for a daughter every time he holds his beautiful niece. I see him grow more and more tender as he grows closer to Jesus and me. I have felt the dull ache of pain when another post announcing a pregnancy passes my news feed, and I have felt my arms ache to hold my baby so badly, it almost becomes unbearable. We simply want to bring a child into a family who loves Jesus and each other, unconditionally and eternally.