Miracles do happen.

Infertility is an extremely isolating diagnosis. After two long years, I am finally ready to break my silence and talk about our struggle with infertility. We have gone through a roller coaster of incredibly emotional fertility treatments that have all failed. Our Doctor suggested 3 months ago when our 4th IUI (artificial insemination) failed that we should seriously consider doing IVF (Invitro fertilization). Brad and I talked about it and felt there was absolutely no way we could do it at this point in our lives. It would cost us $20,000 because our insurance does not cover infertility treatments. So we decided to stop treatments because we were just wasting money on IUI's that obviously were not going to work for us.

Today has been the answer to our prayers that we have been patiently waiting for. Yesterday Brad and I decided to sign up last minute for the Pound the Pavement for Parenthood infertility 5k here in Orem, Utah. I heard about this organization from our good friends Brett and Marnie who attended the race a few years ago in hopes of winning a free round of IVF. When you register for the race there is a place on your registration form to write in the name of someone to enter the raffle for a free IVF cycle. We knew that if we signed up we most likely wouldn't win, but we felt it was at least giving us a chance. So I signed us up. I decided to ask my parent's if they would sign up because it would increase our chances having a few more people write in our names for the free IVF cycle. I talked to my parents and they told me to call my grandparents, who then told me to call some of my aunts and uncles, and by that point I realized we had a good sized army of prayer warriors. A few of my good close friends know about our struggle with infertility, so I thought I would call them as well to give them an opportunity to be a part of this. Before we knew it we had about 20-25 people registered who wrote our names down for the free IVF raffle! We are so overwhelmed with how much love and support we have from our family and friends. It is incredible.

WE WON.

I still cannot believe it. It is so crazy to think about the hundreds of people who were at the race, yet we were chosen for the FREE IVF CYCLE. We are so grateful. When they read off my name I started bawling. All I remember is standing up and hugging Brad so hard. I looked over at my sister Chantel who was sobbing and ran and hugged her. Brad and I made the long walk up to the front and I remember Brad saying "Oh my gosh!!! oh my gosh!! We won! Can you believe it?!?!" My response? sobbing. sobbing. sobbing. I have cried so many times throughout the day just thinking about how blessed we are for this opportunity. Today was a tender mercy that we will never forget. Heavenly Father is so good.

So many happy tears! 

The video of us being drawn from the raffle!