Smith Family Baby Dream
Donation protected
Recently, friends of mine found out that they were not going to be able to naturally pursue their dream of having a baby, I wanted to share their story & ask those of you that can and want to contribute to our fundraising events to do so. This is their story:
Smith Family Baby Dream
Have you ever wondered—when would you be ready to have kids or when would it happen? Many people become parents unexpectedly but also many are planned. Recently, we found out that we do not have the ability to become parents without having In Vitro fertilization. Currently, we have a 10-year-old son that I have been fortunate enough to become his full-time step-mom after meeting him at age 3. After trying, wondering, waiting, straining our relationship and experiencing all the emotions for the last few years, a recent surgery revealed that this was not going to happen naturally for us and it was going to be a long journey for our dream of having our own baby would happen.
Everyone has a thought of what their “life plan” will be and there was not a question about wanting to get married, have kids, and all that jazz---one day. The “one day” came sooner than I thought when we met one another and soon after fell in love and had our own little family. With all of this happening, we thought, let’s do it right—finish college, start our careers, get married, and then have a baby so our step-son can have a little brother or sister---WRONG. We all make life plans—they don’t always work out. When the time was right we had to tell our son—when tears came to his eyes and said I am getting older and won’t have any time with him now. This of course brought tears to my eyes and knew that together as a family—we would make our dream come true. It has been quite the adventure and journey through our last 8 years together between becoming parents full-time together, finishing college, starting my high demanding career, not knowing if we would be able to have a baby, and now finding this out. We have been strong throughout all the life struggles that we have gone through and that has made us stronger and helped us find a clear path of what we want in life.
So—now that we know—it has brought on additional emotional stress but also has given us some relief that we just know. The cost of the process was shocking—you don’t really think about it or hear about it unless you know of someone personally. I also had to decide if I wanted to put my body through surgeries, medications, continuous doctor appointment, etc. Of course, insurance doesn’t cover any of it—including the medications, lab work, and diagnostic testing. After a lot of thought—it was clear that we BOTH couldn’t bare to not just try—if it didn’t work out then at least we know and can move towards adoption/foster care. We have nine nieces and nephews combined and absolutely adore all of them and the feeling that you get when you are a part of a baby/kids life it unexplainable. They are so fun to watch as they learn new things and develop into a wonderful human being!! When it comes down to it—you can’t put a $ amount on a child or having your family’s dream come true. Due to it being so personal, it was a hard thing to share with people, it was almost a feeling of guilt or shame—after realizing that there’s nothing that we could have done differently we became determined to figure out how we can make our baby dream happen. Recently, I’ve accepted a less demanding career allowing me to have more family time & focus on what’s important in life.
We have started to tell friends and family and from there the ideas started stirring. We found hope—we found that we could have the possibility with some hard work and strategic saving. So—we have come to realization that we can’t do this alone. Knowing that we have such a wonderful set of family and friends we wanted to reach out and let you all know about our situation regardless if your able to contribute. Some of the fun ideas that have come up include having a yard sale, benefit event, bake sale, horse tack sale, online scentsy/thirty-one parties, partnering with local restaurants/bars to do a special, etc. Any and all ideas welcome!! We will keep our positive updates as we go through the process—but will not be too overwhelming, we are pretty private but if you want to know more than we share, please ask! We will also share information on some of the fun events we will be having—please feel free to share with others as appropriate. Thanks for reading and helping us throughout our journey of achieving our “Smith Family Baby Dream”. All proceeds will go towards the Invetro fertilization we will be initiating this fall.
Our goals:
Unfortunately, it is not a guarantee that this will be successful, there is about a 60% chance of it successfully working. With that said, they have different financial plans where you can buy more than one cycle at a time and it significantly saves you money but it also may take the first time—it’s quite the gamble.
Dependent on clinic:
1 cycle with medication: $13,000
3-6 cycles with medications: $22,000-$26,000
We want to save at least half out of pocket and have hopes of raising the other half. Dependent on how much we are able to raise will depend on if we go with 1 or more cycle attempts. They can also freeze the embryos if we are successful our first try for future.
Smith Family Baby Dream
Have you ever wondered—when would you be ready to have kids or when would it happen? Many people become parents unexpectedly but also many are planned. Recently, we found out that we do not have the ability to become parents without having In Vitro fertilization. Currently, we have a 10-year-old son that I have been fortunate enough to become his full-time step-mom after meeting him at age 3. After trying, wondering, waiting, straining our relationship and experiencing all the emotions for the last few years, a recent surgery revealed that this was not going to happen naturally for us and it was going to be a long journey for our dream of having our own baby would happen.
Everyone has a thought of what their “life plan” will be and there was not a question about wanting to get married, have kids, and all that jazz---one day. The “one day” came sooner than I thought when we met one another and soon after fell in love and had our own little family. With all of this happening, we thought, let’s do it right—finish college, start our careers, get married, and then have a baby so our step-son can have a little brother or sister---WRONG. We all make life plans—they don’t always work out. When the time was right we had to tell our son—when tears came to his eyes and said I am getting older and won’t have any time with him now. This of course brought tears to my eyes and knew that together as a family—we would make our dream come true. It has been quite the adventure and journey through our last 8 years together between becoming parents full-time together, finishing college, starting my high demanding career, not knowing if we would be able to have a baby, and now finding this out. We have been strong throughout all the life struggles that we have gone through and that has made us stronger and helped us find a clear path of what we want in life.
So—now that we know—it has brought on additional emotional stress but also has given us some relief that we just know. The cost of the process was shocking—you don’t really think about it or hear about it unless you know of someone personally. I also had to decide if I wanted to put my body through surgeries, medications, continuous doctor appointment, etc. Of course, insurance doesn’t cover any of it—including the medications, lab work, and diagnostic testing. After a lot of thought—it was clear that we BOTH couldn’t bare to not just try—if it didn’t work out then at least we know and can move towards adoption/foster care. We have nine nieces and nephews combined and absolutely adore all of them and the feeling that you get when you are a part of a baby/kids life it unexplainable. They are so fun to watch as they learn new things and develop into a wonderful human being!! When it comes down to it—you can’t put a $ amount on a child or having your family’s dream come true. Due to it being so personal, it was a hard thing to share with people, it was almost a feeling of guilt or shame—after realizing that there’s nothing that we could have done differently we became determined to figure out how we can make our baby dream happen. Recently, I’ve accepted a less demanding career allowing me to have more family time & focus on what’s important in life.
We have started to tell friends and family and from there the ideas started stirring. We found hope—we found that we could have the possibility with some hard work and strategic saving. So—we have come to realization that we can’t do this alone. Knowing that we have such a wonderful set of family and friends we wanted to reach out and let you all know about our situation regardless if your able to contribute. Some of the fun ideas that have come up include having a yard sale, benefit event, bake sale, horse tack sale, online scentsy/thirty-one parties, partnering with local restaurants/bars to do a special, etc. Any and all ideas welcome!! We will keep our positive updates as we go through the process—but will not be too overwhelming, we are pretty private but if you want to know more than we share, please ask! We will also share information on some of the fun events we will be having—please feel free to share with others as appropriate. Thanks for reading and helping us throughout our journey of achieving our “Smith Family Baby Dream”. All proceeds will go towards the Invetro fertilization we will be initiating this fall.
Our goals:
Unfortunately, it is not a guarantee that this will be successful, there is about a 60% chance of it successfully working. With that said, they have different financial plans where you can buy more than one cycle at a time and it significantly saves you money but it also may take the first time—it’s quite the gamble.
Dependent on clinic:
1 cycle with medication: $13,000
3-6 cycles with medications: $22,000-$26,000
We want to save at least half out of pocket and have hopes of raising the other half. Dependent on how much we are able to raise will depend on if we go with 1 or more cycle attempts. They can also freeze the embryos if we are successful our first try for future.
Organizer and beneficiary
Jamie Smith
Organizer
Chippewa Falls, WI
Jamie Smith
Beneficiary
