
Make Joaquin's Wish for a Sibling Come True
Donation protected
My husband, Shanee is a local community farmer, and I am a Special Education teacher. We send our son, Joaquin to a Waldorf school where the focus is around connecting with nature and art, and following the natural rhythms of the earth. We try to connect these values to our family life. We had two natural pregnancies that ended in miscarriage. Our first pregnancy was exciting, and at 11 weeks we decided to tell our 7 year old son, Joaquin who had been asking about having a baby since my partner and I began our relationship when Joaquin was 4 years old. Joaquin was absolutely thrilled and everyday he spoke to my belly. It was pretty devastating to have to explain to him that the seed that was growing inside me wasn't going to become a full grown baby. Our family experienced our first big loss together. Shanee, and I had only been together three years at that point and while it was heartbreaking, it also sealed us together as a family, and made us determined to try again. After our second miscarriage, we came to the realization that we would probably need medical intervention, which was not a road either of us envisioned. Even though I have been teaching for 18 years, my health insurance does not cover any IVF treatments so after exhausting other options, we found a clinic in Oakland, California that I commuted to 45 minutes each way before going to school to teach my students. We felt very well taken care of and supported through our IVF journey, and had high hopes that we would be able to finally grow our family and make it complete. We were able to explain the cool science that the doctors were doing to try and create an embryo to our son, then 8, and he was totally awed to learn about the amazing things that doctors can do. After retrieving and fertilizing 13 eggs, we only had one embryo make it to day 6 and it ended up aneuploid. This was a giant shock to our hearts, and we once again had to explain to our son that he would have to wait, and we would try again. Our doctor helped us understand the process of using an egg donor and shared the very good outcomes that were possible! We are now super hopeful that we can achieve this dream to become a family of four. We are in the final weeks of selecting an egg donor and hope to move forward with a transfer in early summer 2025.
Organizer
Dana Levy
Organizer
Cotati, CA