The past few years Joshua and I have traveled a very long, winding road on our quest to become parents. There have been many dark tunnels and speedbumps along the way, with the latest occurring about two weeks ago. We have found ourselves faced with the difficult realization that IVF is our final hope to build a family.

If you don't know, in vitro fertilization is quoted to cost approximately $16,000. It is a huge cost for us, as we are sure it would be for almost anyone!

Refusing to give up on the hope of bringing our little miracle into the world, Josh and I have been brainstorming on how to achieve this financially. We thought setting up crowdfunding could possibly help.

We want to share our story with you. And, if you would like to help us bring home our rainbow baby... please know that no donation is too small and will be more appreciated than you could ever imagine!

Barely a teenager, I was diagnosed with severe endometriosis. I took medication to try to keep it at bay. However, at the age of 20, I had major surgery in Charlottesville to remove an 11-inch mass in my abdomen caused by my endometriosis. Overall, it weighed 7 pounds. Damage from the mass was so severe that I lost my left ovary and fallopian tube.

Doctors were confident that losing these would not affect my fertility. In fact, many women do still conceive who have endometriosis with only one ovary and tube. Yet... since that surgery, I have always had a slight nagging worry in the back of her mind—a worry that this might cause me to struggle with becoming pregnant.

Two years after my surgery, Joshua and I were blissfully married. We have spent our time as husband and wife with our love somehow still growing each and every day. In March 2020, we decided that we were finally ready to expand our family of two, so we started making preparations. By June 2020, we finally began trying to bring a tiny bundle of love into our life.

After 14 long months, fertility treatments, and constant prayer, the unexpected happened. We received our first miracle! Two pink lines!! We daydreamed about our baby every waking moment. We constantly talked about the impending change to our family dynamic and the exciting adventure that was ahead. We already loved this tiny human that was to come.

Sadly, the day that we should have been hearing our baby’s heartbeat for the first time was the day we lost our baby to an ectopic pregnancy. Undoubtedly, it was the worst and most traumatic thing we have ever had to live through.

It has now been a little over a year since our loss and two and a half years since we began our journey to parenthood. We mustered all the hope we could and cyclically continued with fertility treatments including medication and IUIs. Each venture has been unsuccessful.

We were referred to a doctor specialized enough to handle our situation due to it being such an intricate case. We met with the best endocrinologist available on the east coast, and unfortunately, he confirmed those devastating suspicions to be accurate. We needed a difficult and very unwanted conversation.

As a result of my ectopic pregnancy, my remaining tube is now compromised by severe scarring. The scarring makes it incredibly unlikely that I could ever conceive a child on my own. My doctor said that he understood this is not what we wanted to hear, but he had to be very direct: IVF is our best, and most likely, only option to have a baby.

To make an impossible situation even more difficult, the IVF process was quoted to cost approximately $16,000, should we wish to proceed.

Our insurance does not cover the cost of any fertility treatments. So, everything we did with fertility thus far has had to be paid out of pocket. Unfortunately, this means that the cost of an IVF cycle will also need to be paid out of pocket.

There is good news though! Our endocrinologist is confident that bypassing my scarred tube will give us an almost certain chance of pregnancy! We could even begin immediately. However, the barrier is that the $16,000 cost of the IVF cycle would need to be paid in full and upfront.

That brings us to today and the purpose of our Go Fund Me page. Having a baby is still possible because IVF has made a way. For the first time since the start of our journey, we feel like our child is within reach. Now we just must accrue the funds to start the process. If you would like to make a donation to our savings fund and help bring our miracle into the world, we would be forever grateful to you for your generosity and kindness.

Thank you for being part of our journey!

With love,

Josh and Kristy