Last fall, Fertility Solutions was a Journey to Parenthood sponsor for the Falmouth Road Race.

Our sponsorship funds helped contribute to “scholarships” for those seeking financial support for the infertility treatment and/or third-party reproductive services needed to build their families. This year, three winners shared their stories. Below, you’ll find an excerpt from Journey to Parenthood winner #2’s essay:

Our journey began before we met, in a Pediatric Endocrinologist’s office in the fall of 95. My wife was diagnosed with Turner Syndrome, a condition in which a female is partly or completely missing an X chromosome. She was told that she would not be able to conceive a baby due to her inability to produce eggs. She had just moved to Boston, Massachusetts from St. Thomas, an island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as a result of Hurricane Marilyn. Her parents sent her to live with her Big Sister to finish her last year of high school in Boston. She was seventeen (17) at the time and more worried about getting into college than starting a family. Two years later she was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract. Her Crohn’s diagnosis followed months of illness and nineteen (19) days in the hospital. She would spend several years fighting the horrible illness. As a result, her gastroenterologist recommended that she avoid pregnancy. At that time she was still young and becoming a mother was still not on her radar.

… Early in the relationship she informed me of her fertility hurdles and her decision to adopt when she was ready to start a family. We were so in love and I was very empathetic to her situation, however we were both young and the prospect of parenthood was still distant. We were married in June 2013…

… I had had years to accept my infertility, but he was just coming to terms with the reality. Instead, he thought that we would defy the odds when the time was right and we would become parents the “natural” way. I had to allow him the time he needed to mourn that loss, as difficult as it was. Today we are in a shared space and have begun the process on the way to our goal of parenthood. This is where our labor comes in. We have begun our process of labor which includes, the search for the right agency, numerous background checks, adoptive parent classes, and lots and lots of paperwork for our home study. This phase of labor has been deeply emotional and often painful. With adoption all of the worst case scenarios are discussed in great detail. All of the obstacles are presented bluntly and forth rightly. We have been prepared for the reality of all that comes with adoption. As well as the uncertainty of, will a birth mom choose us?

… Our families and friends have been and are committed to joining us in our fundraising efforts. To this end we ask for your support and assistance in this phase of our labor. We hope that you see us as worthy candidates for your grant. Please know that we are absolutely committed to our goal of parenthood and hope that you will support our journey. Thank you in advance for your consideration.”

Fertility Solutions would like to send our congratulations and best wishes to the second Journey to Parenthood scholarship winner. We hope you’ll check in with our blog in the future to read excerpts from the final essay of the third scholarship winner.