Teddy and I have been together for 8 years, married for 5 years, and have been trying to have a family ever since. Our journey has not been an easy one; after 2 years of trying and hoping, we had to turn to fertility treatment. After another 2 years of various approaches and attempts, tests and trials, we thought we finally had one coming. But last July, I became “1 in 4”.

Shortly after our loss, I was hospitalized with an unknown infection, and had to battle back from sepsis in the ICU. Thanks to a dedicated team of doctors/nurses at Northwestern, combined with the love of a caring husband, and the support of family and close friends, I was able to recover but to a very different normal. There is a unique pain that comes from preparing a place in your heart for a child that never comes.

During the next year while we mourned the missed milestones, we also had to navigate if/how we proceed. The emotional ups and downs are a very unique part of this process. You find yourself grieving the life that infertility has robbed you of, and constantly wonder- can we take the risk again? After many reflections and despite our heartbreak, we still want to try and still want to hope.

Before we proceeded with the next IVF attempt, our doctor wanted to run further testing. The results proved that we needed to have a special probe built to improve embryo selection during IVF. It finally felt like a real solution among all our fertility struggles, and offered us much needed hope in this next try. The only thing in our way now is the financial component. The additional cost of all this testing, and the building of the probe, on top of the already hefty upcoming IVF costs, has forced us to press pause and re-evaluate how we can get there.

If you know Teddy or myself personally, you would know we both have a stubborn side. Which makes opening up and asking for help quite a perplexing feeling for us. But our want, our need, and our belief in a Boucquemont Baby is all we think about. And we know what we have to do to get there- open up, share our fertility story, and ask for help.

So we are humbly turning to our tennis and paddle communities for a little boost, we are asking our family and friends to share what they can, and maybe a little bit of kindness from strangers mixed in. “Small acts when multiplied by many can be transforming.” We thank you, we appreciate you, we are forever grateful to you.