Help Jordan & Joe grow their family through IVF

Hi! My name is Samantha Riffe and Jordan is my sister. Our family wanted to do something to help her and her family offset the cost of their IVF process. Here is a bit about their journey so far…

“Hello friends, family, and community,

We are Jordan and Joe Stanfield. We met in our freshman year of college and began dating in 2009. We always talked about the life we would build together: college, career, a house, getting married, having children. All things you talk about when planning a life together. We grew in many ways, moved many times, graduated college, got fur babies, started careers, bought a house and finally got married on New Years Eve 2016. At this point we had checked off all of the boxes except one, and we were both ready for the final one. Joe and I had always wanted a big family. Unfortunately, we have been unable to have any biological children on our own due to my having Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.

The thought of not being able to have kids when it is all you can think about is devastating. Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to be a mom and have children of my own. I’ve been around kids all my life; babysitting when I was in highschool, coaching gymnastics, going to college to become a teacher, and now as a middle school social studies teacher. My life pretty much revolves around children. So each time we ran into another negative it felt like another gut-wrenching blow and another crack formed in my heart. I also know how much it was affecting Joe. Watching him as an uncle is such a joy, and I wanted so badly to be able to give him children of his own.

Fertility struggles aside, we were able to become parents starting in 2016. Albeit, very untraditionally. As some of you may know, we have been blessed to be able to raise three amazing teenage boys: Angel, Ivan, and Cristian. The three of them were family friends of our nephews who had hung out with us a few times. When they were forced to move back to Mexico because no family members here could care for them, they were extremely upset and so were we. Only a week had passed when we received a phone call from the boys telling us how uncomfortable they were in Mexico and asking us how we could get them home. Joe and I didn’t hesitate. After a grueling 48 hour drive to the border and back to pick them up with my dad, we welcomed them into our home. Although I never imagined becoming a parent in such an unconventional way, I am forever grateful for the family we have become. We would love nothing more however than to expand our family and get to experience all of the stages of parenthood.

Joe and I have been trying to grow our family with the help of fertility treatments for the past four years, but have been unsuccessful. We tried a simple medication first to help me ovulate which worked, but no positive pregnancy tests. We then moved on to artificial insemination. Again, no positive pregnancy test. With all of our other options exhausted, we were forced to move on to in vitro fertilization (IVF).

In June of 2021, we were finally able to begin the in vitro process. Because neither of our insurance companies cover any fertility treatments, we had to wait until we had enough money saved to start. Most doctors' offices charge $20,000 just for one procedure. This does not include medications that can range between $3,000 and $6,000. Thankfully, we found CNY Fertility Center in Syracuse NY that has made this procedure a possibility. So far we have been able to pay out of pocket for our medications, travel expenses to NY, and a portion of the egg retrieval costs. Because of this process, we now have 19 little frozen embryos. We are just waiting for the opportunity to transfer one of those embryos and hopefully have a successful pregnancy.

Although we are grateful for our success so far, this is both an emotionally draining and financially draining process. We can only wait and hope that our “someday” will come soon and we will have our baby in our arms at last.

While discussing our options and figuring out how to get to the next step we had quite a few people tell us to create a Gofundme. We have always been more comfortable and accustomed to being people who help others in times of need, rather than people who would even consider asking for help. But this experience has certainly taken us out of our comfort zone in more ways than one...

Now, in order to move forward with the next step of our journey we find ourselves needing to ask for your help. We understand this past year has been tough for many. So whether you are able to donate $20, $5, or only able to share, we greatly appreciate any help you can offer. Any donations made to this fundraiser would help with costs that we have accrued for the egg retrieval process that we have already completed and the embryo transfer we have planned.

For those who donate, we want to have a way to remember your support. We are making this as a puzzle fundraiser. Each piece will represent someone special who donated to help us with our journey. Your name will be written on the back of a puzzle piece. YOU will be completing the missing piece to our puzzle!

The puzzle will be framed and hung in our future nursery. This will be a beautiful keepsake for us to cherish forever, as we will always be able to look back and be reminded of your generosity and investment in our family!

Thank you so much for reading and supporting us on this journey.

Love,

Jordan and Joe”