“We met online in 2009, and were married on August 27th, 2011. We wanted to start a family soon after. We tried the old fashion way, but a little less than a year into it, we decided that wasn’t working. We saw a specialist, who suggested we tried IUI’s. From November of 2012 to September of 2013, we tried 5 times, and none of them worked. At that point, I was exhausted and completely worn out. It was disheartening because our doctors said there was only a 5% chance of this working, but we still felt it was our duty to try. We thought miraculously something would happen, but it never did. We got to a point where it was too much. It was affecting both of us. They told us we should move onto IVF. We decided to take a break from trying for a little bit, so we could focus on our marriage. Having a family was so important to us, but at the same time, other areas of our life needed to be tended to. We bought a house in 2014, and shortly after that, I started doing some research. I came across something called embryo adoption. This is where people who have done IVF, have leftover embryo’s, and one of the options is to donate them to another couple who is infertile. We learned about that in September of 2014. I reached out to an agency that helps facilitate these matches, and within 5 days we were matched with a family, who offered us 3 embryo’s. It was amazing. We even chose to have an open relationship with the couple who donated to us. Our financial situation was still a burden, so in the Spring of 2015, our wonderful friends did a fundraiser for us. We ended up raising $8,000. Our friends all came together. This is our dream but to know there are so many people in our lives that are dreaming this dream for us, is pretty amazing. In October of 2015, almost a year after we were matched with the embryo, we were financially ready, and able to transfer our first embryo. We did the transfer on October 9th. Soon after, we found out that it worked. We were so excited, but it was short lived. We heard a heartbeat 2 times, but on our 3rd ultrasound, just over 8 weeks in, they told us that there wasn’t a heartbeat. We were super bummed, but we had 2 more embryo’s and thought 1 has to work. We felt hopeful. We tried another one in February of this year, but that ended in a chemical pregnancy. I felt pregnant, we saw the positive pregnancy test, but it didn’t even get to the point where you could detect a heartbeat. We had one more chance. We did it this last June, but we had the same results with a chemical pregnancy. At this point, we’ve spent over $20,000, and have tried for 5 years. Right now, we are at a place where we have the option to try a few more IUI’s, but it’s a lot to take on, emotionally and physically. We did meet with an adoption agency, and our heart is in that place. We are ready to move on in that direction towards the end of the year. It can take you down. It can take the strongest of couples down, but somehow, we are still fighting together. We keep dreaming of being parents and believing that it is going to happen for us. It isn’t easy, but we still have each other, and I think going through this has brought us closer together. It’s going to be amazing when we become parents.”