VICK & SHAREE'S IVF JOURNEY
Spende geschützt
To our family, friends, acquaintances and everyone who has taken the time out to read about our story, we would like to say Thank You in advance! Sharee and I are both 30 years of age and have been married for 7 years now. It has always been a dream of ours to have children and build a family together. It may not be a story told by very many, but God has allowed us to tell ours.
(inhale…Exhale)
Here’s our story….
At the age of 18 most teenagers were preparing themselves to go off to college. I myself began working on establishing myself as a responsible stable adult in the eyes of the Department of Child and Family Services. At this time my siblings were placed in foster care. I was supposed to go away for college but couldn’t leave knowing that my siblings were separated in foster care, so I put college on hold and began working full-time and securing an apartment to prove to the courts that I was able to take care of my siblings. I was denied time and time again but stayed determined and still attended every meeting and court date advocating for them. During this time, I met Sharee at church and after being friends for close to a year we started dating each other in 2008. The following year I received a call on my 21st birthday from the agency asking if I still was interested in getting my siblings. I was told that they would allow me to foster the three older siblings but that my youngest sibling, who was only about a year old at the time, would be adopted by the person who he was in care of. I was extremely happy and excited that they were allowing me to finally take in three of my siblings but was also sad that my youngest sibling was not able to come at the same time.
(inhale…Exhale)
Here’s our story….
At the age of 18 most teenagers were preparing themselves to go off to college. I myself began working on establishing myself as a responsible stable adult in the eyes of the Department of Child and Family Services. At this time my siblings were placed in foster care. I was supposed to go away for college but couldn’t leave knowing that my siblings were separated in foster care, so I put college on hold and began working full-time and securing an apartment to prove to the courts that I was able to take care of my siblings. I was denied time and time again but stayed determined and still attended every meeting and court date advocating for them. During this time, I met Sharee at church and after being friends for close to a year we started dating each other in 2008. The following year I received a call on my 21st birthday from the agency asking if I still was interested in getting my siblings. I was told that they would allow me to foster the three older siblings but that my youngest sibling, who was only about a year old at the time, would be adopted by the person who he was in care of. I was extremely happy and excited that they were allowing me to finally take in three of my siblings but was also sad that my youngest sibling was not able to come at the same time.
My siblings and I in 2011
After getting the okay on getting my siblings I went through the process and became the youngest licensed foster parent at that agency. Taking in my brothers, ages 16 and 8 and my sister, age 13 at the time. Sharee was there and helped in every way possible every step of the way. I truly believe in the quote, “Behind every great man is a great woman”. She could have chosen to leave this complicated situation and continued living her own life, but not only did she choose to stay but chose to be in my siblings’ life as a sister-in-law/mother-figure as I was being a big brother/father-figure to them. I was so used to figuring things out and handling things on my own but times when I was overwhelmed and feeling like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders she was there to help carry the load and to let me know that “WE GOT THIS!”
Neither of us having any children of our own and now fostering my siblings we had to learn as we went along. Wanting a better life and a new environment we decided to relocate. After 3 years of being together I most definitely had to “put a ring on it” so we got married in 2011 at the age of 23. As we grew as a family together we faced challenges and made it through without any handbooks or manuals. In 2013 Sharee and I both legally adopted my youngest brother that was in our care. We always desired to have biological children of our own one day but after 3 years of trying we knew something just wasn’t right. It wasn’t until 2014 that Sharee and I decided to make our first appointment at the fertility clinic. At our first appointment Sharee was told that they couldn’t assist with anything fertility wise because she was overweight. This motivated her to take control of her health. Since then Sharee has lost over 100lbs * SO PROUD OF HER!*
After revisiting the fertility clinic in 2016 we discovered that I was not producing an adequate amount of sperm. We were once again discouraged and felt as if the day of having a biological child would never come. We pressed forward, and I began treatment to increase my count. In July of this year my sperm count finally increased and we thought we were all set to conceive. However, at our most recent appointment we were told that Sharee’s AMH level had declined and that our best option to conceive would be through IVF (IVF stands for In Vitro Fertilization which is an assisted reproduction procedure).
We cried and broke down not understanding why it had to be us and why we weren’t able to conceive on our own. This has been a very emotional roller coaster for us but with prayer and support of our close loved ones we have faith that this was not all in vein and we will continue to fight for our family. I personally was afraid to share our story because of what others may think and not wanting to ask for help. It is very humbling, and I know I must put my pride aside because unfortunately we are unable to do this alone.
So as most may know IVF is very expensive, it will cost us $19,500 to cover the medication, the actual IVF procedure and monitoring. Hoping we will start this process in December 2018. We are asking our family, friends (and anyone willing to help) if at all able for assistance on reaching our goal to go through with this process to be able to conceive Baby Tanksley. We are very appreciative of all support whether it be financially, giving encouraging words, prayer or even sharing this page. Thank you all again for all your support on this journey and helping to make our dream a reality.
Victor & Sharee
#TEAMTANK
Neither of us having any children of our own and now fostering my siblings we had to learn as we went along. Wanting a better life and a new environment we decided to relocate. After 3 years of being together I most definitely had to “put a ring on it” so we got married in 2011 at the age of 23. As we grew as a family together we faced challenges and made it through without any handbooks or manuals. In 2013 Sharee and I both legally adopted my youngest brother that was in our care. We always desired to have biological children of our own one day but after 3 years of trying we knew something just wasn’t right. It wasn’t until 2014 that Sharee and I decided to make our first appointment at the fertility clinic. At our first appointment Sharee was told that they couldn’t assist with anything fertility wise because she was overweight. This motivated her to take control of her health. Since then Sharee has lost over 100lbs * SO PROUD OF HER!*
After revisiting the fertility clinic in 2016 we discovered that I was not producing an adequate amount of sperm. We were once again discouraged and felt as if the day of having a biological child would never come. We pressed forward, and I began treatment to increase my count. In July of this year my sperm count finally increased and we thought we were all set to conceive. However, at our most recent appointment we were told that Sharee’s AMH level had declined and that our best option to conceive would be through IVF (IVF stands for In Vitro Fertilization which is an assisted reproduction procedure).
We cried and broke down not understanding why it had to be us and why we weren’t able to conceive on our own. This has been a very emotional roller coaster for us but with prayer and support of our close loved ones we have faith that this was not all in vein and we will continue to fight for our family. I personally was afraid to share our story because of what others may think and not wanting to ask for help. It is very humbling, and I know I must put my pride aside because unfortunately we are unable to do this alone.
So as most may know IVF is very expensive, it will cost us $19,500 to cover the medication, the actual IVF procedure and monitoring. Hoping we will start this process in December 2018. We are asking our family, friends (and anyone willing to help) if at all able for assistance on reaching our goal to go through with this process to be able to conceive Baby Tanksley. We are very appreciative of all support whether it be financially, giving encouraging words, prayer or even sharing this page. Thank you all again for all your support on this journey and helping to make our dream a reality.
Victor & Sharee
#TEAMTANK
Organisator
Victor Tanksley III
Organisator
Champaign, IL