IVF Journey: Growing the Gust Family

Dear family, friends, and kind strangers,

We are reaching out with heavy hearts and a humble request for support. If you know us, we have a hard time asking for help, but in this moment of vulnerability we know we can't make our dream a reality without you.

Growing our family has not been an easy journey from the start. Addie is a miracle and we cherish her everyday. We have hoped and prayed to make her a big sister for a very long time now. A baby brother/sister has on her Christmas list for years. Now that she is 8 years old, we have involved her more in the conversations, answering any questions she has, and even letting her read the pregnancy tests each month. Years of trying, having my left fallopian tube and ovary removed, as well as multiple miscarriages has left us all emotionally exhausted. The best way I have found to explain infertility and loss is you're always mourning, mourning a pregnancy loss, mourning a negative pregnancy test, or even mourning a missed ovulation window. We have decided our best chance at growing our family and making our biggest dream come true is adding a little science to our prayers with In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).

The cost of IVF treatments is incredibly high, offen exceeding tens of thousands of dollars, and unfortunately it is an expense we can not afford on our own. We are asking for your support, whether it's a donation, prayer, or just simply sharing our story with others. Every ounce of support will bring us that much closer to our baby.

We are so greatful for each and every one of you and we promise to keep you all updated along our journey. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us get one step closer to completing our family!

Update #1: We have decided to take a new route and do IVF in Cancun Mexico. After thorough research we have decided the level of care, success rates, and cost is so much better than what is offered here. This is a scary stressful decision but we have to let go and let God. It'll all work out if it's meant to!

UPDATE #2: Things are happening!! We will be going to Mexico at the end of the month for retrieval, hopefully everything will work out to be able to do a fresh transfer while we are there, and we can return home pregnant it's all moving so fast which is stressing me out a little bit but we are also so excited and hopeful. We are overwhelmed with love and support, thank you all so so much! ❤️

Update #3: Stopping in for a little update and asking for continued prayers I have been in Mexico for 3 weeks now, doing ultrasounds, bloodwork, and injection after injection. Yesterday was egg retrieval day, which if the injections didn't make it feel real, that sure did! With only having one ovary they were able to retrieve THIRTY FOUR eggs, today 15 of those have been successfully fertilized please send allllllll the prayers that they continue to grow/develop! Unfortunately because my body got so over stimulated and for my health we are unable to do a fresh transfer and our journey is now paused until April when we will do a frozen transfer. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support ❤️

Update #4: 14 Embryos made it to this morning!! Please keep those prayers rolling in thank you all so so much ❤️❤️

Update #5: None of our embryos made it to freeze. We are absolutely devastated. Prayers for our hearts needed. We are back to square one, and I can't even think about where to go from here right now. Thank you all for your continued love and support.

Update #6: Friends, we have been home for about a month now and have been processing the news that none of our embryos made it. We have been weighing and praying about our options and have decided that since we paid for a package of 2 retrievals, we can't give up now and we HAVE to try again with our last remaining retrieval before moving on to donor options. It will be a few months before we are able to go again so I am sharing our go fund me again humbly asking for support as retrieval meds ($2500) and of course the travel and 3+ week stay in Mexico are not included in what we have already paid. Please please please share and send alllllll the prayers our way, we are not ready to give up! ❤️