Community Support for Baby Luca

Greetings beloved community. We are Abby and Stephen Luca, of Fryeburg, Maine, and we have a hurdle ahead of us that, despite the difficulty of reaching out, we cannot jump without the support of a whole village. We know in our bones that we're meant to be parents, and we've been asking the universe for help growing our family for over a decade. More tests, exams, appointments, tears, pain, and invasive procedures than we can count have provided us with two babies, lost at 4.5 and 7 weeks, and with exactly zero answers as to why this would be the case. We're both healthy, everything "works", but we've not been able to get and stay pregnant. It's clear now that it's time to take a scary step up, and we can't do it alone.

We've made the decision, after 10 years of trying (literally everything else), and on the cusp of our 40th (Abby) and 46th (Stephen) birthdays, to have one last heroic attempt via in vitro fertilization (IVF), to find Baby Luca. The goal for the fundraiser represents the approximate cost of achieving one live birth via IVF for a couple our age (I know, it's insanely high!). The goal doesn't include other expenses that families have to weather, like gas, lost wages for the several-times-weekly medical appointments, and lodging for any necessary overnight stays closer to a clinic. In Maine, insurance isn't required to cover fertility treatments for couples medically unable to conceive, so it's categorized similarly to treatments like Botox and body implants. Our current insurance won't even cover care at the same rate as other standard medical treatments. The system is failing us--we need the village.

From Abby: For the last decade, a mirror of the time we've spent trying to conceive, I have served local communities in birth work, first as a doula, and then as a Certified Professional Midwife. I've been a part, in some fashion or another, of hundreds of births, and it has been my passion and my joy. It's an honor that I can't quantify, and it's infused with feelings that can't be named with mere words. There isn't anything in the world comparable to catching a baby and then holding that sacred pause for a parent to take a breath, reach down, and pick up the child that their body has literally, cell by cell, created. I've spend the grown majority of my life giving and being present, bearing witness rather than children, and now I have to get messy-brave and ask my served communities to also be present for me. Please be with Stephen and I for our final go-round. We can't do it without you.

Thank you so incredibly much for your support, and please feel free to leave your hopes for Baby Luca in comments here. Let's bring them forth, folks <3