Anyone who knows our daughter, Ophelia Dove Robison, knows that she’s gotten A LOT accomplished in her three short years here on Earth. She’s lived through a global pandemic, has been diagnosed with a chromosomal abnormality that no other human on record has ever had, and has gotten a gigantic network of family, friends, therapists, doctors, nurses, strangers at the grocery store, kids at the park, etc. to fall madly in love with her. She’s been to Hawaii…twice! She’s gone whale watching in Mexico. She went on a road trip through England, France, Spain, and Portugal. She went on a thirteen mile hike, where she was backpacked around like the queen she is, through Glacier National Park. She’s been to New York, California, Georgia, and Indiana. She’s been the proud owner of two dogs. She’s even had a children’s book written for her by her mom. The only thing it seems like she hasn’t done yet is become a big sister.

Ophelia is the greatest gift we have ever received. She is a bite-sized dream come true, and every day spent with her is the new best day of our lives. That being said, her uniqueness has also come with a ton of heartache, uncertainty, and trauma. We have gone through things with her that no child or parent should ever have to go through. And, while we will gladly continue to do so until our dying days, we unfortunately won’t live forever. Our dream is to create a sibling (or siblings) for Ophelia, who will love and protect her as much as we do.

Ophelia’s chromosomal abnormality is genetic, and there’s a 75% chance that her siblings could either have what she has, have something worse than what she has, or be a carrier and pass what she has on to their own children. For this reason, we are creating a genetic probe for Ophelia’s specific genetic sequence, so that we only implant siblings for her who are not affected by her syndrome. This is, as I’m sure you can imagine, as expensive as it sounds. Creating the genetic probe, on top of the IVF expenses and Ophelia’s medical bills, has finally put us in a position where we are asking for help.

There is no guarantee that we will create a healthy embryo with the first round of IVF. We will be lucky to create four embryos in total, and we will be even luckier if one of those embryos is viable. In short, this baby will be as much of a miracle as Ophelia is.

Please feel free to donate what you can—every little bit helps! If you’re not in a position to donate, please feel free to share our GoFundMe with others and keep our family and this IVF journey in your thoughts, prayers, and wishes. We love you all!

-Sarah, Dantley, Ophelia, Chester (in spirit), and Chowder