Baby Burgemeister IVF Journey
Donation protected
Our dear friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances, and any who read this,
Dustin and I come to you with hope for a miracle for our family! We’re talking about a big miracle – having a child of our own! In the spirit of total transparency, we are grateful for your compassion as we share our story with you. Dustin and I were in our early 30’s when we were married. Our greatest desire ever was to dedicate ourselves to raising a happy, warm, successful and love-filled family. We both come from families that have been there for us through the difficult, funny, happy, sad, life-changing and day-to-day moments.
On our very first date Dustin made it a point to tell me about his infertility issue. It was important for Dustin to be upfront and honest about his situation from the beginning. Here is his story:
“When I was 17-years-old I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. I began my battle with cancer by having surgery in 2003 and started chemotherapy, which continued for four months. After one more surgery in April 2004, I was declared cancer free. I went on to college and graduated from St. Olaf and earned my master’s degree in exercise physiology at St. Scholastica in Duluth. A few years later, living life as a strength coach in Redwood Falls, MN, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer for a second time. I had been “dealt” the wrong cards again. My doctor told me that I was the one percent of the one percent that this happens to. Saddened but determined, I had no doubts that I would be cancer free again. After having another surgery and second opinion on treatment, it was decided and determined that no other treatments were needed. Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to have my sperm frozen in the hopes of having a child one day. My family was eager to support me financially and paid for my sperm to be banked. This was my only hope of ever having a child of my own, and I will forever be grateful to them. I have been cancer free for six years!!”
I was understanding and open about Dustin’s situation, but also terrified. I’ve always wanted to be a mom. Being a mom was the most important part of every dream I had for my future. Throughout my life I’ve been asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? Most of my friends wanted to be teachers and nurses…but I wanted to be a mom! I’ve always wanted a baby to hold, feed, teach and snuggle. I had always believed that choice was up to me – that all I had to do was decide to have a baby and it would happen. I knew on our first date, that Dustin was the one and his infertility issue was not going to stop me from being with him.
A month after we were married we met with an infertility doctor with the hopes of utilizing IUI treatment (artificial insemination) to get pregnant. Our doctor ran a sample of Dustin’s frozen sperm and it was determined that the quality of Dustin’s sperm was too poor to consider IUI. This was devastating news to hear. I sat quietly while tears ran down my face as the doctor explained that we’d have to do IVF w/ ICSI (In Vitro Fertilization is an assisted reproductive technology commonly referred to as IVF. It is the process of fertilization by manually combining an egg and sperm in a laboratory dish, and then transferring the embryo into the uterus) – a procedure that costs nearly $20,000 versus IUI treatment that costs under $3,000. Words cannot describe the range of emotions we felt with being told that we’d have to undergo IVF and that we would need thousands of dollars to even attempt to have a family. It was overwhelming emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially. Dustin’s biggest fear is that I am going to leave him because he’s not able to give me the one thing I so desperately want, but I promised him that I will stay by his side and we would fight together to do whatever it takes to have our miracle baby. Dustin has kicked cancer’s ass twice – we have it in us to make our dream a reality!
Dustin and I spent hours upon hours working on infertility grant applications, with the hope that maybe just one organization would be able to help us. Unfortunately, we received multiple denials. Each denial e-mail leaving us feeling more hopeless - the feeling of discouragement was suffocating. We cried a lot, we held onto each other and we promised each other that we were going to continue to fight to start a family. We’ve been saving money and plan to take out loans to help cover the costs of the procedure and medications, but we know it will not be enough.
So, this is where you come in, our family and friends (and whomever you’d like to share this with—please share!!). Deciding to share our personal journey has been very difficult and it really humbles us to ask for help. We’ve decided that we must turn to our friends and family who we know love us and have offered us encouragement to be accepting to assistance. Your consideration to join us in this journey to having a child is so greatly appreciated. With help and support, we know our dreams can be a reality. Thank you for empowering us-whether that is through financial support, a hug, an encouraging message, a prayer or even just sharing this page so that our story can be retold. We assure you that this request is not made lightly, and again, it took us some time to ask for help, but we know we can’t do this alone. When I recently told a dear friend of my hesitation and my worry of what people might think, she responded with, “Why wouldn’t you do EVERYTHING in your power to have a baby, regardless of people’s judgements.” So that is exactly what we are doing! We're hoping to start the IVF process in January 2019!
Thank you for your continued love and support while we embark on this journey to make our dream come true.
Calli & Dustin
Dustin and I come to you with hope for a miracle for our family! We’re talking about a big miracle – having a child of our own! In the spirit of total transparency, we are grateful for your compassion as we share our story with you. Dustin and I were in our early 30’s when we were married. Our greatest desire ever was to dedicate ourselves to raising a happy, warm, successful and love-filled family. We both come from families that have been there for us through the difficult, funny, happy, sad, life-changing and day-to-day moments.
On our very first date Dustin made it a point to tell me about his infertility issue. It was important for Dustin to be upfront and honest about his situation from the beginning. Here is his story:
“When I was 17-years-old I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. I began my battle with cancer by having surgery in 2003 and started chemotherapy, which continued for four months. After one more surgery in April 2004, I was declared cancer free. I went on to college and graduated from St. Olaf and earned my master’s degree in exercise physiology at St. Scholastica in Duluth. A few years later, living life as a strength coach in Redwood Falls, MN, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer for a second time. I had been “dealt” the wrong cards again. My doctor told me that I was the one percent of the one percent that this happens to. Saddened but determined, I had no doubts that I would be cancer free again. After having another surgery and second opinion on treatment, it was decided and determined that no other treatments were needed. Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to have my sperm frozen in the hopes of having a child one day. My family was eager to support me financially and paid for my sperm to be banked. This was my only hope of ever having a child of my own, and I will forever be grateful to them. I have been cancer free for six years!!”
I was understanding and open about Dustin’s situation, but also terrified. I’ve always wanted to be a mom. Being a mom was the most important part of every dream I had for my future. Throughout my life I’ve been asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? Most of my friends wanted to be teachers and nurses…but I wanted to be a mom! I’ve always wanted a baby to hold, feed, teach and snuggle. I had always believed that choice was up to me – that all I had to do was decide to have a baby and it would happen. I knew on our first date, that Dustin was the one and his infertility issue was not going to stop me from being with him.
A month after we were married we met with an infertility doctor with the hopes of utilizing IUI treatment (artificial insemination) to get pregnant. Our doctor ran a sample of Dustin’s frozen sperm and it was determined that the quality of Dustin’s sperm was too poor to consider IUI. This was devastating news to hear. I sat quietly while tears ran down my face as the doctor explained that we’d have to do IVF w/ ICSI (In Vitro Fertilization is an assisted reproductive technology commonly referred to as IVF. It is the process of fertilization by manually combining an egg and sperm in a laboratory dish, and then transferring the embryo into the uterus) – a procedure that costs nearly $20,000 versus IUI treatment that costs under $3,000. Words cannot describe the range of emotions we felt with being told that we’d have to undergo IVF and that we would need thousands of dollars to even attempt to have a family. It was overwhelming emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially. Dustin’s biggest fear is that I am going to leave him because he’s not able to give me the one thing I so desperately want, but I promised him that I will stay by his side and we would fight together to do whatever it takes to have our miracle baby. Dustin has kicked cancer’s ass twice – we have it in us to make our dream a reality!
Dustin and I spent hours upon hours working on infertility grant applications, with the hope that maybe just one organization would be able to help us. Unfortunately, we received multiple denials. Each denial e-mail leaving us feeling more hopeless - the feeling of discouragement was suffocating. We cried a lot, we held onto each other and we promised each other that we were going to continue to fight to start a family. We’ve been saving money and plan to take out loans to help cover the costs of the procedure and medications, but we know it will not be enough.
So, this is where you come in, our family and friends (and whomever you’d like to share this with—please share!!). Deciding to share our personal journey has been very difficult and it really humbles us to ask for help. We’ve decided that we must turn to our friends and family who we know love us and have offered us encouragement to be accepting to assistance. Your consideration to join us in this journey to having a child is so greatly appreciated. With help and support, we know our dreams can be a reality. Thank you for empowering us-whether that is through financial support, a hug, an encouraging message, a prayer or even just sharing this page so that our story can be retold. We assure you that this request is not made lightly, and again, it took us some time to ask for help, but we know we can’t do this alone. When I recently told a dear friend of my hesitation and my worry of what people might think, she responded with, “Why wouldn’t you do EVERYTHING in your power to have a baby, regardless of people’s judgements.” So that is exactly what we are doing! We're hoping to start the IVF process in January 2019!
Thank you for your continued love and support while we embark on this journey to make our dream come true.
Calli & Dustin
Organizer
Calli Jill
Organizer
Hopkins, MN
