Support Justin and Chelsé's Journey to Parenthood

Our names are Justin and Chelsé.

Since our second date, we have known we wanted to have children together. In March of 2022, we were surprised with a positive pregnancy test and excitedly started the journey to parenthood. We found out we were expecting a little girl who we lovingly named Zophie. At about 20 weeks, Chelsé developed preeclampsia, a life-threatening condition that escalated to HELLP Syndrome. Essentially, her body was shutting down. She fought hard to survive and bring Zophie into the world, but at 23 weeks and 4 days, our little baby girl was born sleeping on July 28th.

We worked hard on ourselves, mentally and physically, and were given the all clear to try again in the fall of 2023. In February of 2024, we excitedly found out we were expecting again, and again another little girl! Her name was Ember.

Chelsé had a picture-perfect pregnancy but again at about 20 weeks, we learned that the preeclampsia might be back again and we would be welcoming our little one a lot sooner than we expected. Again, Chelsé fought hard for the both of them and on June 21st at 23 weeks and 2 days, we welcomed Ember into the world. We were hopeful our little feisty girl would fight hard to stay, but her sweet little heart beat for the last time just two days later.

Now we’re turning to our friends, family, and strangers to help our dream of raising a family become a reality. We’ve been cleared to start the IVF portion of surrogacy but unfortunately found out due to bureaucratic hurdles, our insurance will not cover it as they’ve deemed it elective.

Any amount will do, a few $1 donations add up quickly. Anything left after we bring home our baby will be donated to “Cuz We Care,” an organization that has removed the burden of final expenses for both of our late daughters.