Hello and thank you for taking the time to read about us and considering us to be your embryo recipients.  We are [His name] and [Her name].  We would love to make our dream of becoming parents happen via embryo donation.  It’s not the traditional way to become parents but it is where our journey has led us.  It has been a rough and very bumpy journey to this point but it has made us stronger as a couple and we remain steadfast in our core desire of building a family together.

It took us a little longer in life to meet each other.  We met in 2019, at age 32, and can both say from early on we knew that we wanted to build a future together.  Each passing year and the ups and downs of life make that more and more evident.  We align on core values and future life desires and goals.  Commitment, honesty, loyalty, family and mutual respect are some just to name a few.

In 2020 we got engaged and then the world shut down.  A worldwide pandemic wasn’t when we thought we would start a family but not being able to be around loved ones and just life’s uncertainty actually made it even more clear how much we wanted a family of our

own.  After months of trying with no success my OB/GYN recommended we see a fertility doctor.  We made our appointment, waited to get in and thought this is what’s going to help us conceive.  The doctor recommended that we try a series of IUI’s before jumping into IVF.  We did six rounds of unsuccessful IUI’s. That left us down but not out. We were ready to move onto IVF.  We got all the medication ordered and the plan all set.  I did all the injections and doctor’s appointments to have that round of IVF canceled because I did not stimulate well and did not have enough sizable follicles to move to retrieval.  Crushed by that outcome and faced with a doctor who was not willing to try any other medication or treatment protocols, we made the decision to switch clinics and doctors.  We were excited and hopeful that our new journey

would fare better.  We did three more rounds of IVF but due to the severity of my diminished ovarian reserve, we only got a single day/three embryo to transfer cycles one and two and two day/three embryos on cycle three.  None of those took and we mourned the loss of each transferred embryo. We named them Avery, Quinn, Parker and Peyton respectively.  The next recommendation due to my DOR and our lack of success at this point was to consider donor eggs. We knew that a lack of biological relation wouldn’t stop the love either of us would have for a future child.  So, we dove into the world of finding an egg donor.  We decided to go the route of frozen donor eggs.  We picked a donor that wasyoung and had a resemblance to

me.  We were excited to hear all of the eggs made it through thawing and four of them fertilized.  By this time, I was 51 days into shots (medicated cycle) and we had our transfer day set.  The morning of our transfer, as we were getting ready to leave the house, the lab called and informed us none of the embryos were at a blastocyst stage and they would not do a day six transfer.  Not one made it to an embryo they would freeze or transfer.  We were devastated

to say the least.  All of this has brought us to this place where we are searching for the family willing to share their love and a piece of themselves to make our dream of having a family come

true.

We both believe that family is a lot of things and one of which is who you chose to make a part of your life. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we will love our future children with our whole hearts.  As will our family and friends.

This journey has been years in the making.  We have made the decision to place a lot of other things on hold to make this our primary goal and mission.  We have had to place a few other dreams on the backburner. One of those was getting married.  It is our desire to get married one day.  However, while we are going through fertility treatment, we have prioritized medical coverage.  My insurance has more fertility coverage then [His name] does and if married I would no longer be offered that medical coverage as I would have insurance offered through my spouse.  That doesn’t seem quite right or fair but that’s the reality we face.  We prioritized insurance coverage over getting married right away.  Our number one priority is working toward starting a family and IVF and fertility treatments have been very

expensive.  The second thing we placed on the backburner was moving from a townhome to a single-family home. Our goal, once we welcome a baby into our lives, is to buy a home in the same town as [His name] parents.  His mother is retired and is waiting to be able to be a daycare provider for her future grandchildren.

We would love to have two or three children.  It’s hard to put an exact number into a statement.  [His name] is the middle child of three and I am the oldest of two and always wished for another sibling.  We are currently 37 years old; depending on the length of time this donation process takes and how successful each FET cycle goes does play a role in the decision of how many children we would love to bring into our family.

I work part-time to full-time as a pediatric dental hygienist and [His name] works full-time driving a truck locally.  We enjoy being able to have dinner together every night and have weekends free to spend time with family and friends and enjoy activities we love to do.  We both love animals.  We recently lost our Westie (Cooper) at age17 and still have a German Shepherd (Piper) and two tuxedo cats (Diesel and Luna).  We like to take our dog to the local off leashdog parks and walk trails there.  We were both raised Catholic and hold a lot of traditional Christian values.  We really focus on living these values and being good humans vs. requiring ourselves to attendchurch weekly.  When the weather allows, we like to be outside on our bikes, in our kayaks or enjoy going out with [His name] parents on their boat.  This past fall we upgraded to e-bikes so we could make it further on the beautiful path systems that can take us town to town or down more scenic paths. My parents have a hobby farm a few hours away from us that we spend weekends at frequently.  [His name] enjoys frisbee golf and woodworking.  I like crafting, taking care of my plants and restoring things like furniture.  I refinished the dresser in our future nursery. We are both fairly handy and would like to pass those skills onto our future kids.  We also enjoy attending plays, musicals and any kind of live music event.  We are season ticket holders at our local theater.

[His name] was a mechanic for years before moving into the transportation industry.  He would love to teach our future kids about mechanical things and invite them to work on cars with him.  He would love to build a kit car with his kids one day.  I would like to teach them to cook and have them help me make family dinners. We would both like to be involved in our children’s activities whether it is being a leaderfor a scout troop or coaching a sport.  We are lucky to be able to take a trip or two a year for vacation. We enjoy seeing different parts of the country and visiting national parks.  In the last couple years, we have been able to see Channel Islands, Joshua Tree, Death Valley and Indiana Dunes.  This summer we are planning a trip to Voyageurs National Park.

We would like to share a little about our extended family as one day they will be very important people in our children’s lives.  My parents are retired and their names are J and B.  They live a fewhours from us as I already mentioned. My brother J has special needs that require him to live with them.  They have chickens, three dogs, two cats, a large garden and a pool we enjoy.  My mom likes to sew, knit and quilt.  We have already picked out the quilt design we want her to make for the nursery.  My dad just finished installing their new deck and always has a newproject as 66 acres is more than enough to keep him busy.  Their property is where we have annual Memorial Day reunions with my mom’s extended family. [His name] parents E and D live pretty close to where we do now. His mom is daycare for her granddaughter J three days a week, is a master of her Cricut for crafting and is one of the biggest Disney fans we know.  [His name] dad just retired, likes to play pool, race slot cars and be out on the boat.  He also likes to host a Halloween costume party every year.  [His name] nana R also lives with his parents. Her dream is to see us have a family and GET MARRIED ALREADY (☺).  His sister K, her husband E and their daughter J (18 months) also live in the same town.  K works at a daycare and E is a pilot. [His name] other sister A lives about an hour away with her husband R and their three kids J (14), B (11) and R (5).  A is a project manager and R works in customer support.  A and R have experienced significant loss with their own miscarriage and the death of a child. They have been some of the people that have been the greatest support to us.  Not a lot of people really understand the emotional toll, sadness and loss that infertility brings but they empathized and have been a huge support.  My two best friends L and S are like sisters to me. Both are also pediatric dental hygienists.  They can’t wait to become

“aunties”!  We schedule a girl’s day to go antiquing or out to dinner at least once every other

month.  [His name] friends M and C are also waiting to become “uncles”.  C was adopted and he has provided us insight into how strong the bond is with his adoptive parents. M has been [His name] best friend since high school.

We are hoping to find a closed, semi-open to open child-led arrangement.  Basically, we are open to all forms of donation.  When initially thinking about this honestly, we questioned if open donation was something we could consider.  I’m sure it’s hard to think of another couple raising children that come from embryos you once created for yourself. It’s hard to think that our child was originally created to be born to someone else.  We had fear that maybe the child/children would be more drawn to the donors over the years or donors would want too much of a relationship.  Fear isn’t something that we want to be in the driver’s seat of the creation of our family.  Love is what we want to drive it.  You are donating embryos to gift us the family we so desperately desire; that’s love if you ask us.  Plus, the more people to love the child/children the better, right?  We plan to always share our child’s origin story with them so they will know they came from love and were given to us to be loved.  We have faith that the love they receive and feel from us and the community they are raised in and the support and

encouragement they have in life will leave them never questioning these points matter the type of donation arrangement.  That being said if “open”, we would like to exist largely independently until wefeel the time is right topotentially meet in person.  Communicating through the agency if “semi-open” or directly via text, pictures, emails to share updates if “open”.  We would like to expand the relationship organically and foster a relationship among the adults initially.  Then allow the child/ children to determine when they are ready to develop a relationship.

From the bottom of our hearts thank you for this selfless donation!  We hope to be picked to bring life and love to these embryos!

Wishing you all the best- M and H.