Our story…

My husband and I have been together for over 15 years, He had two children from his previous marriage. D is now 24 and A, his oldest, is 30. Both children resided with their mom in another state. It was hard for the both of us trying to become a family in the beginning because [His name] only sees the children during the Summer.

[His name] and I are both very traditional when it comes to our family. We love traditional food. We attend traditional celebrations. It is a tradition every year in our city that we dress up in our traditional cultural clothing and celebrate New Year in November with family and friends. Many times, [His name] and I would feel left out. It was always the both of us that had no children to look after. [His name] grew up in a big family of 8 siblings and I was the opposite. Most importantly, we both were raised by loving parents and we want to be able to give that to our children when the time comes.

In my mind, I am a teacher. I have taught for over 20 years. I worked with children every day. I see them all. I have met them all…Jaylen, Bailey, Marjorie, and even Royal. I love each one of them like my own. The only difference is that I get to send them home at the end of the day. [His name] is Self-employed, he worked with a company that had to be relocated for 15 years. [His name] enjoys working on cars and project around the house. We have a 2 story, 4 bedroom and 3-bathroom home. Our backyard keeps [His name] busy. Our property sits on 2-acre lot. Our Maltese dogs are named Sugar and Doofy. Plenty of room to run around the yard. We had a Yorkie who recently pass about a year ago.

I often thought about how it would feel to have a child of my own. I will name the child, feed it, and find childcare. I am not ready, but time is not on my side. I am no longer in my thirties, but soon to be in my forties. Exactly, 43 when I met Doctor W. I am healthy, there’s nothing wrong with me. My cycle is normal. Infertility does not run in my family. Come to find out, the most heart breaking, disappointment, and why me? Took a piece of me away. Dr. W recommended that I need IVF to help me have a baby of my own.

My husband and I decided to try it. I hated needles, I hated the feeling but kept on going. We were able to retrieve 16 eggs, fertilized 6, 2 survive to the blastocyst stage. We decided to PGT the embryos and scheduled for transfer as soon as we found out. I was ready for the transfer to take place, then the phone rang. “Both of your embryos are aneuploidy…” What does that mean? The testing reveals chromosomal abnormalities that could cause future problems. I was shaken, speechless, and scared. I was in tears, in the middle of my classroom. I have become weak and lost. I felt defeated.

[His name] and I made the decision to do a second round of IVF. Which resulted in no surviving embryos. It was disappointing and confusing at the same time. I had no more strength to keep going. My emotions were like a rollercoaster trying to find an answer. I finally told myself that I need to find a donor’s egg that is younger than me and use my husband's sperm to fertilize it. It was a miracle, we had to blastocyst embryos that we were matched with. Covid, 2021 scared everyone across the country. We finally did the transfer. I was able to experience the whole pregnancy for 35 weeks. On April 1, I had to be induced. My baby girl was born on April 2.

This time last year, I was stressed and excited about transferring my last donor’s embryo. I was told it was a beautiful blastocyst embryo from the same donor and that if everything goes according to plan. My fertility journey and desire of having another sibling for my daughter is finally complete. At our first ultrasound, the news that no parent wants to hear. I was told that my pregnancy had stopped growing.

My doctor mentioned that we would have a better chance at growing our family and having a sibling for our little girl if we can find a match through an embryo donor’s program. We were blessed to have worked with such a great team. They explained to us how the process works and that we had to be placed on a waiting list.

One day, my best friend called me up and asked me if I had thought about adopting a baby. She wanted me to investigate it. She had just met a lady, who went through the process of embryo adoption. She had just given birth to her second child using an embryo that was donated to her by a couple who do not want to have more children. I started doing my research and reading through all the wonderful positive possibilities. I know it was meant for me. Things were coming to place and if it’s something that God had planned for me. It will happen.