Fundraising

Where does all the money go? As you can imagine fertility treatments are expensive, they have always been expensive, and as medical science improves they actually are getting more expensive. In fact the best chance Jen and I had at getting pregnant and carrying to full term was the newest, most expensive and yet most unproven of all fertility treatments. Oh yeah and of course they are not covered under insurance. We knew this and still it didn’t matter, we would stop at nothing to have our family.

Guess what? Adoption is more expensive than fertility treatments, in most cases costing more than $20,000.00 for one adoption. That same amount of money will get you about 3 failed fertility treatments. Still it won’t deter us. We started this summer by having 2 yard sales to help defray the cost. We also are recycling aluminum cans. We already have many friends and family members saving their cans for us. If you recycle aluminum, call us, e-mail us, send a letter, use smoke signals, whatever the case, Jim can come pick them up, just let us know. Every can helps. If you have any other ideas on how to help with fundraising let us know, we really value anything you can think of.

Lessons Learned

     When I think back over I can't believe everything my wife and I have been through, the last 4 years. You learn so much about yourself and each other when you have gone through attempted pregnancies, miscarriages, and failed fetility treatments.
     I have found a new appreciation for my friends that had or are going through fertility treatments. I found out that I can be truely happy and jealous at the same time. I am happy for all my friends and family that are able to have children the "traditional way" (whatever that is) and yet somewhat jealous that it seemed so easy for them. I learned how to just listen to what my wife had to say, and hopefully when I was supposed to answer or when just being quiet was what she needed. I learned that anger is ok, in fact needed, at least for our personalities. We have been angy at everything in the last 4 years; ourselves, the medications, the doctors, even God. Anger helped us get past everything and see what the "Plan" for us was. Most importantly we learned PATIENCE. Wait and see if she is pregnant, wait and take more medication, wait and see if the medication is working, wait to have sex, wait to see if she is pregnant again, Wait to get more money to only wait and try again, but wait before you continue the cycle. Wait, Wait, Wait.
     The adoption process can be long and anxiety filled, just ask anyone who has been through it, but because we have gone through our "fertility journey" we are better prepared for it.

Jim

How we got to this point?

6 months after Jim and I got married, I found out I was pregnant. I miscarried at 6 weeks pregnant. We were shocked. But as we were told over and over by everyone that at least we knew I could get pregnant(the worst thing anyone could say to someone who just had a miscarriage). So we continued to try on our own, but after a year of trying on our own we knew something was wrong. So began the journey of fertility treatments, we had no idea what we were in for. Months after months of medicine, shots, IUI's, and lots of money, we were told our only option was to try IVF. We went back and forth on whether to stop treatments and try to adopt or go ahead and try IVF. We decided there would always be the "what if" factor, so we decided to move forward with the IVF. For anyone that has ever gone through this it is the most amazing, and stressful experience. We were thrilled to find out I was pregnant with twins! We thought for sure that this was it for us. I miscarried at 8 weeks pregnant, we were devastated, heartbroken and angry. We didn't understand how this could happen again. It took us a while to realize that maybe God had another plan for us and that is how we came to the decision to adopt. And while there are days that we are still angry and upset(more often than not), we know that adoption was the best decision for us!!! We are so excited to become parents!

About us

5 years ago when Jim and I got married, with Logan (Jim's son) by our side, we became a family of 3. We knew our family wasn't complete! So then became the journey of trying to have a child, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. After 3 years of struggling to have a child of our own, we have decided to adopt through domestic adoption, we have been active and waiting since June 2010!! We are super excited to begin this journey, and while there maybe days that it doesn't seem like it, we are truly blessed! We hope you enjoy our blog!