Our surrogacy journey!
Donation protected
My name is Lori Jolliffe and as a child I was diagnosed with a cancer called Rhabdomayosarcoma. I was 4 years old when I was forced to fight cancer. In order to save my life and cure me of the disease, my doctors felt the best plan of attack was a complete hysterectomy. I am now 27 years old and as a result of my cancer diagnosis, my husband Josh and I are unable to have children naturally.
Josh and I have been going back and forth for years as to if or when we would have children. The lingering concern was always that it would cost us a lot of money.
We had always assumed if and when we had a child that it would be through adoption, which was perfectly fine with us. Though I had always dreamed of going through surrogacy. I just never thought we would ever have the opportunity...
Six months ago we received a letter from my cousin Bri. She wanted to let us know that she had been thinking about being a gestational carrier for a while. Specifically, she'd felt led to be a gestational carrier for Josh and I. She wanted to talk more with us and wondered if we might be interested. Our first reaction was HECK YES!! A dream started to come true as everything fell together perfectly. We were immediately all in!
People willing to help us on this journey didn't end with Bri. We ended up finding the PERFECT doctor located in San Francisco. We also found a PERFECT egg donor who knew our story, and didn't want any compensation.
Surrogacy is absolutely not an easy process. It takes a lot of planning which includes appointments, legal representation, money, blood tests, travel, psychological evaluations and much more . The whole process is worth it of course, but I was just waiting for something to go wrong... But, nothing went wrong and we made our way to San Francisco for the first transfer.
We underwent our first round of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) on March 12th and it didn't take. Josh and I were heartbroken. Because of the time and emotions we had invested over the past few months, our immediate reaction was to take a break from trying again.
How can I tell that little girl who fought so hard to survive cancer that I gave up after the first try? LIFE ISN'T EASY and there is no way we stop now!
We have decided to go for round two of IVF this spring but rather than keep it all a secret we feel it's time to share our journey and ask for the support of all of our family and friends. We need your emotional support which includes prayers and positive thoughts. We need your physical support which includes an encouraging email or text. But we also know that a lot of people don't want to stop there. Which is why we have created this page. A simple way for those that want to give in a monetary way as well.
Our families have been more than generous and we are prepared to max ourselves out financially to go for the second round. However, we are asking you to consider helping us as we continue this amazing journey as well. We thank everyone for the love and support that we have already received!
Please feel free to share our story with others.
Josh and I thank you for reading this through to the end. Thank you for joining us as we get closer to our dream of becoming parents.
Love,
Josh and Lori
Josh and I have been going back and forth for years as to if or when we would have children. The lingering concern was always that it would cost us a lot of money.
We had always assumed if and when we had a child that it would be through adoption, which was perfectly fine with us. Though I had always dreamed of going through surrogacy. I just never thought we would ever have the opportunity...
Six months ago we received a letter from my cousin Bri. She wanted to let us know that she had been thinking about being a gestational carrier for a while. Specifically, she'd felt led to be a gestational carrier for Josh and I. She wanted to talk more with us and wondered if we might be interested. Our first reaction was HECK YES!! A dream started to come true as everything fell together perfectly. We were immediately all in!
People willing to help us on this journey didn't end with Bri. We ended up finding the PERFECT doctor located in San Francisco. We also found a PERFECT egg donor who knew our story, and didn't want any compensation.
Surrogacy is absolutely not an easy process. It takes a lot of planning which includes appointments, legal representation, money, blood tests, travel, psychological evaluations and much more . The whole process is worth it of course, but I was just waiting for something to go wrong... But, nothing went wrong and we made our way to San Francisco for the first transfer.
We underwent our first round of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) on March 12th and it didn't take. Josh and I were heartbroken. Because of the time and emotions we had invested over the past few months, our immediate reaction was to take a break from trying again.
How can I tell that little girl who fought so hard to survive cancer that I gave up after the first try? LIFE ISN'T EASY and there is no way we stop now!
We have decided to go for round two of IVF this spring but rather than keep it all a secret we feel it's time to share our journey and ask for the support of all of our family and friends. We need your emotional support which includes prayers and positive thoughts. We need your physical support which includes an encouraging email or text. But we also know that a lot of people don't want to stop there. Which is why we have created this page. A simple way for those that want to give in a monetary way as well.
Our families have been more than generous and we are prepared to max ourselves out financially to go for the second round. However, we are asking you to consider helping us as we continue this amazing journey as well. We thank everyone for the love and support that we have already received!
Please feel free to share our story with others.
Josh and I thank you for reading this through to the end. Thank you for joining us as we get closer to our dream of becoming parents.
Love,
Josh and Lori
Organizer
Lori Vick-Jolliffe
Organizer
Boise, ID