Angel and I never expected to have to do this but here it goes. As most of you know Angel and I have been together a while, 12 years to be exact. In that time before having gotten married, we always knew that we wanted to start a family as soon as we were married. In preparation for starting our future family, I, Patty, went to the doctor to see if my body would be ready, but it turns out there would be some minor complications along the way. In 2016 I began taking a medication that would help sort things out so that when we were ready to start trying for a family, my body would be as well. In the meantime, I continued to do research on the whole getting pregnant thing because it turns out, its not as easy as you may think, at least not for everyone. In April 2018 we got married and were ready to start working on expanding our family. A few months after trying, my body just didn’t feel right. I knew things in there were not working so I set off to see my doctor. I had multiple ultrasounds and bloodwork done. Eleven months after getting married and countless doctors’ appointments later I got devastating news. I knew it wasn’t good when my doctor walked in and gave me a hug right away. I was diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency. Basically, it means that I’ve gone through menopause at an early age and therefore having my own child would be nearly impossible without more invasive medical help. This meant that our only options for starting a family would be doing a procedure called In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). If you’re not familiar with the process I will explain quickly. They take my eggs, Angel’s sperm, put them together in a lab and then back into me. I was quite worried that not only did we now have to go through this process, but we had to also deal with the hefty price. The cost on average for IVF including the medicine that I would have to inject myself with daily is about 12,000. Imagine hearing that news and then having to go to work and smile all day while pretending everything was OK. It was a hard day. So, after getting the awful news, I was referred to a reproductive endocrinologist/fertility specialist. Turns out that the doctor I was referred to was highly sought after and I would have to wait about 2 months before I could see him. When Angel and I finally went to the appointment I had an ultrasound. The doctor was looking for any eggs that I could later retrieve to use for the IVF procedure. He saw 0. I had no eggs at all meaning that the possibility of me having a child of my own DNA was not going to happen. I now also need an egg donor, which ups that $12,000 price to about $27,000. I cried a lot that day. I’m quite Lucky that I had Angel by my side. I had just received a lot of life changing news and to top it off the office didn’t treat me very well, so we switched offices. So, I had to go through all that again at another office. So, we go to another office and I hear all the bad news again! and to make matters worse, the doctor said that the likelihood of my now egg donor IVF being successful at my weight was not good. I was ordered to lose some weight. Most of you have wondered how I have been able to do it. When your future child is your motivation, you can do anything. So as I was saying, I had to lose weight and lower my BMI before the doctor would even consider allowing me to do IVF. That doctor visit was in February 2019. Fast forward to June 10, 2019. I just came home from the doctor’s office and I have been given the green light to start! In the past few months I have missed a lot of work days, visited every doctor under the sun, gynecologist, fertility specialist, gastroenterologist, nutritionist, neurologist, lost 30 pounds, had countless ultrasounds, had about 28 vials of blood taken, yes I have been counting, not to mention have paid a lot of medical bills all in hopes that Angel and I could start a family. Angel and I have done all that it takes to get where we are, the only thing in our way right now is that fact that we will need to pay roughly $ 27,000 to get the chance to try to become parents. I forgot to mention that doing IVF is not a guarantee that I will even get pregnant. The doctor said I have about a 70% chance at this being successful. Angel and I are hoping that you could be please help us fundraise the money that we will need to have this procedure done. Any money donated will go towards the purchase of eggs from a donor, freezing them while my body is prepared for the procedure, the medicine and injections I will need to do daily for 6 weeks at minimum or 4 months if I get pregnant, and the transfer of the frozen embryo. Any donation no matter how small will be so greatly appreciated. We are so determined to start our family, but we have also realized that we may need a bit of help. I’ve heard that it takes a village to raise a child. We may need that village’s help to get to meet ours.