Gabi & Ramtin's Journey to Becoming a Family

Hello! We are Eric and Lauri Bolland. Our daughter Gabrielle Beikrassouli is someone many of you probably already know and love! She is so fortunate to belong to such a wonderful community at Robinson Township Public Library: staff and patrons, teachers, administrators, students, and parents - and you are so lucky to have Ms Gabi as an important community helper!

Since December of 2023, our family has been walking with Gabi through the discovery, diagnosis, and treatment of Ovarian Cancer. She and Ramtin are now moving from the journey through cancer and recovery, to the future, and beginning to embark on their search for a Gestational Surrogate and the entire surrogacy process.

This gestational surrogacy journey takes many years and is prohibitively expensive. The legal and medical fees, insurance, extensive travel before and after the baby’s birth, as well as well-compensating the amazing surrogate herself, will cost so much more than a traditional baby’s birth.

We know so many of you have grown to love Gabi as much as we do. We’re inviting you to join us in bringing to life Gabi’s most heartfelt dream of having a village to surround and love her, as she becomes a mother in this new and unexpectedly amazing way!

We will be updating the page as Gabi and Ramtin make this journey to make their family a reality.

The projected need is $150,000. If you are able, and want to join us in helping their dreams come true, we thank you wholeheartedly for your support, and for any donation you would be able to give!

We think Gabi tells her story the best, so we are sharing Gabi’s own story in her own words:

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My name is Gabrielle Beikrassouli, but so many people know me as Ms Gabi the librarian!

One thing in my life I’ve always known: I want to be a mom. I’ve often daydreamed about my future babies running around the house, coming to my library, and having storytime with the families that I’ve gotten to know over the years…introducing all of them and saying “This is Ms Gabi’s baby! I hope you can teach them all about storytime, and show them how much fun you can have at the library!”

Growing up, I knew one day I would find a wonderful husband, partner, and future father with whom I could settle down and raise our children in the community we’ve created.

I set about creating my community. I became a youth services librarian for my local public library - a job I’ve been in for 10 years and loving every minute of it. I love to see “my families” come through the library, discovering the joys of reading, learning, and having fun. I’ve worked so hard and dedicated so much time and love into my library community. I hope that I have made as big an impact in my library, and in my community, as they have on me.

Ramtin and I met through his cousin, who is my good friend. Which is something I’m forever grateful for. From the moment we started dating, I knew he was my forever one. Community and family are so important to both of us, that we just knew.

He and his family run a local pizza shop in Crafton, and with me working in Robinson, we set about creating our life together.

After a few years of dating, buying our home, and creating our little family of two humans and three furbabies (Trixie boo, the fluffy pomeranian, Mags the majestic black cat, and Mr Gucci, a monster kitten who just loves cuddles), we got married in July 2023. I started taking Farsi classes, Ramtin’s native language, so that I could help teach our children one day!

So excited for what our future held, we were building our life together. But all of that came to a halt 5 months after our wedding.

In December, I was rushed to the hospital with the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life. After a multitude of tests and scans, the ER doctor came in and abruptly asked about family history of cancer. She said they had found a large mass on my right ovary.

That moment I broke down and felt my dreams of our future slip away from us. The future I had been dreaming about as Ramtin and I danced our first dance as a couple. The future we planned as we looked out at our group of family and friends, and as we said “I do”.

We met with my oncologist a few short weeks later and discussed my options. The first step was surgery to remove the mass and ovary, and exploratory surgery. I underwent the surgery two days after Christmas, with my husband and mom by my side. My right ovary and tube were removed, and biopsies taken.

After the surgery we waited for the pathology report to find out our next steps. The day I got that call, I’ll never forget. The doctor confirmed it: Cancer. She said we were fortunate to have caught it so early, but as it is truly cancer, now is the only time a cure is possible.

She and I had been having long conversations, so she knew my dream was to start a family, She gave us approval to pause the treatment in order to have one round of IVF to create embryos for a gestational surrogate. Ultimately, my best chance for a long healthy life was a radical hysterectomy and 6 rounds of chemo. I made the difficult decision to say yes to the suggested treatment plan. Although I want desperately to be a mother, I never wanted to bring a child into the world, only to potentially leave them with the nagging concern that their existence is the reason their mom isn’t here to see them graduate.

In February, Ramtin and I embarked on a month-long intensive IVF course. If we were going to do it, we wanted to give it 150%! He gave me multiple shots a day, we had almost daily trips to the fertility clinic for bloodwork and ultrasounds. We arrived at Retrieval Day: my single remaining ovary was as ready as it could ever be!I had the procedure to retrieve my eggs and we crossed our fingers for how many healthy embryos we could preserve.

We were surprised and thrilled with four healthy embryos from that single IVF retrieval journey with my one little lone ovary. The clinic prefers to have 3 healthy embryos per child wished to conceive. My body fought hard and gave us the chance to have a baby!

After the IVF, I went back into the hospital for the radical hysterectomy.

Keeping my head down, and taking one day at a time, has been the only way we’ve made it this far. Trying not to worry too much about the future, but of course it still comes up: The heartbreak of broken dreams and what I thought was going to happen. Many nights I’ve cried myself to sleep because my dreams of becoming a mom and carrying our child were dashed on the rocks on that cold December day in the emergency room.

After recovering from my hysterectomy, I had a port placed and started chemo. Soon my doctor called with good news: they got all the cancer and it hadn’t spread. While I would still need the chemo as precaution, one small mercy was shown.

Now that I am nearing the end of my chemo series, I’m processing everything that we’ve gone through the last few months, and I’m looking ahead to the future. A future that wasn’t in my radar, but is now becoming very real. A future that is still, often, hard to swallow. I will never get the opportunity to carry and birth my children, which is something I’ve always wanted. While I’m processing this loss, I’m working through therapy to come to terms with a dream being taken away from me, and I’m still holding on to the dream of becoming a mommy and raising a family with Ramtin. Together, we dream of continuing to support and grow as a family in the amazing community we call home.