We need your help. Shannon suffered an arterial aneurysm in one of the arteries that feeds the uterus at 14 weeks pregnant. Shannon's heart stopped twice, needing 2 rounds of CPR, 64 units of blood, and 3 emergency surgeries, which resulted in the loss of our identical twin boys (John and William, named for their grandfathers) and a hysterectomy. This was our second pregnancy through IVF. We lost our baby girl, Penelope, in a miscarriage at 6 weeks. We now have only one embryo left and with the removal of Shannon's uterus, she can no longer carry a baby so we are going to have to find a surrogate, which is extremely expensive and something we did not anticipate. We already spent a good chunk of our life savings on the 4 rounds of egg retrieval, so we are asking for your help to enable us to have a chance to still pursue our dream of being parents.

This all happened days before our wedding. Many people asked what they could get us and we were always adamant that we didn’t need anything. Life, however, has a way of proving you wrong and so now we are asking for any donation you feel able to make to help our dream come true.

Thank you so much in advance for your willingness to help. We have had such wonderful support during this devastating time. We are truly blessed with amazing friends and family. We cannot thank you enough for all you have done, including throwing us a beautiful wedding in the hospital. It wasn't what we planned, but it was perfect. And thank you to the incredible care team at St. Francis. Without them, Shannon very literally would not be here. We will never be able to convey how grateful we are.

If we are unable to meet our goal and cannot move forward with surrogacy, we will do our best to reach out to each person who donated to determine if you would like your money back or for us to donate it to charity.