The Gift of Life and Family

Amanda Surprise (28) and Mondreus Oakley (26)Engaged, together for 3 years.
Wedding is July 2014.


Our Story


Well hello there! I'm Amanda Surprise (yes that's my real last name), my fiance's name is Mondreus Oakley; and we are in search for the greatest gift ever. I want to tell you my story and maybe, just maybe, you can help our dream finally come true.


I'm a very determined, hardworking, social butterfly; that loves people, animals, and making people happy. Well here is my story that turns into our story... the good, bad, sad, and ugly.


I married who I thought was my best friend in 2005, Mr. Surprise. We were both young (I was 19, he was 23), excited for the future, and loved each other passionately. May 8th, 2005 was, at that time, the best day of my life. A month later I started to feel really sick, crampy, and was spotting. I told MR. S what was going on, and since we had just gotten married our insurance hadn't rolled over yet. So, we decided to go to an Urgent Care in Lafayette (June 10th). Went, the doctor did the exam, asked for a urine sample, came back the first one had too much blood in it so asked for another. Did a pap, called MR. S into the room, and this is what the doctor said. Looks like you have a UTI and your hormones are all out of whack. Well I had a UTI before and it never felt like this, and the hormones being out of whack can always make sense being a female, so we believed the doctor. He gave me double doses of birth control and sent me on my way. (Never asked for a blood sample) So I start taking the double doses of birth control like I'm supposed to which was hard in itself because I've never liked birth control. So anyways about a month later, July 13th, I woke up, tried to get out of bed, and I couldn't. I couldn't move my lower half of my body, was in extreme pain, and home alone. I call MR. S and he is 45 mins away and kind of giving me a hard time, because he would have to leave the job, and what if it was nothing and we spend all this money to go to the ER. I'm sobbing and not sure what to do. I literally drag myself to the bathroom, crawl in the shower, and lay there. MR. S comes home, sees me and realizes there is something definitely wrong. We get to the ER about noon. They are so vague there. Coming in and out of the room, doing a million test on me, MR. S and I are not sure what is really even going on. About 5:30 p.m. a nurse comes in and says she is going to give me morphine, MR. S and I agree, still not knowing anything. As soon as the stuff hit my veins it was the wildest burning sensation I have ever felt in my entire life. Then as soon as she was done she looked at MR. S and said she has a tubular pregnancy. The doctor will be in, in a minute. I look at MR. S and I start laughing. Not meaning to but I couldn't help it, that morphine stuff is crazy. MR. S starts asking me all these questions, gets mad, because I'm laughing, and it hits me. I'm pregnant? I've been taking double doses of birth control for a month. In my tube? What does that mean? Then 30 mins goes by and in walks a doctor and says we are prepping you for OR. You are going to surgery in 5 mins. By this time MR. S had called everyone. Even though we knew very little he knew it was very serious. People were coming in to see me, crying. I was so confused. Finally the doctor who would do my surgery, Dr. Sunkel, came in and had everyone leave the room and told MR. S and I what was going on. He said from the looks of it I was pregnant in my left tube. From the size of it I got pregnant around May 8th (my wedding night), and the tube continued to grow. It was now July 13th. Dr. Sunkel said he didn't know how I was still alive. I had been internally bleeding for almost two months. The baby would have never made it because of all the birth control that I had been taking anyways. We were crushed and I was rushed off to surgery. It was supposed to be an hour long. 2.5 hours later I was in the recovery room. Dr. Sunkel knew we had just gotten married so he did it as outpatient so I wouldn't be charged as much. It was still $25,000. I recovered, gained a bunch of weight, was more in debt, and not sure about our future. We started trying in 2007, did testing, did hormones, and did everything they said I should do. Finally they said we should do IVF. I was excited. Felt like it could really happen. MR. S made really good money, and coming up with the 15,000 up front was something I know we could do. Well things happened, his business needed this and it needed that so we said we would wait. Come 2008 he said he was ready, and then it was he couldn't because of this and that. I was crushed, but what could I do? So I put on a smile, went to millions of baby showers, prayed constantly, and cried almost every day. 2009 rolls around and MR. S promises this was the year, and at this point, I'm determined so I start pushing a little more, make appointments for us to get test they do before IVF: we were so close. Then in July, I started to see a change in MR. S, I didn't know what it was. Then Labor day weekend we were at our camper, and MR. S and I had a fight the night before. That morning he told me straight face that he wanted to separate. He wanted to live in the woods, hunt deer, fish, and just be by himself. I'm crushed, heartbroken, lost, confused, and sad. But I was tired of this yo-yo game he was playing with me. So I went home, made plans to move out, and got a small apartment my brother had for rent. I went and got counseling to help me through this, and MR. S and I were working on it. What I didn't know was MR. S was talking to someone else. I didn't know her but we lived in a small town outside of Lafayette, called Battle Ground, and it had one restaurant called TC's. She was a bartender there. MR. S had been going there often since 2008 for lunch, which I knew because his shop was right next door, wasn't a big deal. But It was because at some point an emotional relationship had started. I don't know when, or how, but it did. By October 2009 she was staying at my house. We were just separated, it crushed me, and he would lie about it though. Promised he would do this, do that, go to counseling with me: but it never happened. On Thanksgiving Day I got my certified letter from his attorney. He filed for divorce. Then again it was back and forth. He wanted it didn't want it, wanted me to be the mother of his children, and I loved him so I agreed to keep working on it. In January 2010 my dad almost died from a brain aneurism. Not only was I losing my husband, but now my dad. It was awful. In March 2010 I get a call from MR. S, I can hear it in his voice. He says, "Amanda, ****** is pregnant." I don't remember what I said I just remember feeling like I had been hit by a truck. MR. S and I had been together since 2002. He was all I knew. I thought he was my best friend? A best friend would never do what he did to me? They would never even allow this. Who was he? Who was I? What did I do to deserve this? Was it my fault I pushed him away because I can't have children? I thought we had a plan. That same day, I called MR. S back and I told him, it is over. I can never get over this, and I would never be able to look at that child every day and remember everything he put me through. I sealed the deal that day and April 10th our divorce was final. I didn't get anything from the divorce, I didn't want anything, and honestly I could have ran him through the ringer, but I didn't. At this point I had moved out of my apartment, into my best friend Erin's house she just bought, and knew soon I would have to find my own home. I started searching in June, found a guy named Neil on craigslist who wanted to start doing real estate, met him, looked at houses, and searched and searched. Finally one day I was looking and found an investment property. Didn't really have a kitchen, needed some work, but had a separate apartment behind I could use as income. I was determined, and after a lot of work, I mean a lot of work, 6 different closing dates, I finally found a local bank that would back me if I put 20% down. My brother offered to help with the 20% but I had to pay it back. I finally closed on my first home by myself on Sept 11, 2010, exactly one year that I had moved out of my house with MR. S. What an awesome feeling. In October 2010, the state of Indiana cut my position from my job I had been with since 2007. Thank god I had picked up a 2nd job in June 2010 at a local Steak House, Mountain Jack's as an expo in the back. In the same month of October 22nd, I was home one night messing around on my Iphone checking out different apps and I downloaded this app called "What's Good". LOL I know right: it was just a chat app, not even a dating app. Anyways I was browsing the guys, and came along a very good looking man in Virginia. I think it said we were like 680 miles apart. So me being me and not shy at all, sent a message, "Too bad you live so far away, I bet we would have fun together." I didn't really think anything of it and all the guys on there were like nasty: always like send me pics and wanting to like cybersex: Not for me haha. So like 2 or 3 days later I get a notification that mojo24 (Mondreus Oakley, also call him Dre) had sent a message. I'm thinking to myself, great, what did I say? What did he say? I look and it was a pleasant surprise that he wasn't asking for pictures, or saying some vulgar stuff, he actually started a conversation. So we started messaging back and forth for a couple weeks. Then one day I gave him my phone number, and we talked on the phone. We became friends first. I looked forward to hearing from him, had a lot in common, and he was very sweet. In the beginning of November we talked about web-caming, so we started to do that. It was nice to see him, and to see that he was who he said he was lol. Plus I googled the crap out of him, and his address, did criminal searches everything lol. Started telling my friends about him, stopped talking to other guys, and made him my main focus. December 10th, he flew here to see me, and it was instant. As soon as I saw him walking towards me and that smile, I just knew. We had a great visit, and him leaving was so hard. He didn't leave for long. January 2011 he came to visit for a little bit longer, which long story short, ended up him staying here. When we were just talking in October and November, I told him everything about me. My ex-husband, the baby thing (which is hard telling people especially if they are wanting kids the old fashion way), about my dad, and my mother, my family, and my life. I knew Dre wanted a big family, as I do too, and he didn't run away when I told him. I think maybe he thought about it because I gave him an out if he wanted it, and I understand. Even if I do IVF it may not work still and that's a lot of money to risk. I have still had hope this whole time that maybe it would happen. I even had a doctor tell me, it could easily happen with him since he has new or different sperm, sometimes women's bodies get use to their husband sperm and it doesn't work. So I had hope, and trust me since 2011, we have been trying, and still nothing. I just graduated, started my own business, am a landlord. Mondreus just got a job at Cargill, everything is falling together. We have some savings but that is going towards wedding stuff, but $15,000 seems so far away. I know when Dre asked my dad for my hand in marriage he assured them that he knew about the baby situation before hand and would never leave me because of it. But I want this for him and I so bad. I want to be able to give him the dream of a family that we have talked about so much. I am so ready to be a MOM. I've been ready since I was 20. I'm now 28, IVF chances get lower and lower the longer you wait. I'm so scared that this won't work, but my heart, mind, body, and soul tells me that if I don't take this risk or even this leap of faith that I will regret not trying. My dream is to be a mom. I'm the kind of person that if I want something I just go and get it myself, and asking for help has never been easy for me to do. In everyone else's eyes I am this strong super woman that can do anything and everything. This is just something I can't do alone. I hope you get this. I hope it reaches and or touches your heart. I love Mondreus, and I want to be able to do this for him. In the back of my mind it's hard to not think the same thing could happen with him that happened with MR. S. That I'll get a phone call from Dre saying somebody else is pregnant. I think not having a family and getting another phone call like that is my biggest fear in life. Our wedding date is July 19th, 2014 and for our wedding, we do not want any gifts, but would like people to put the money they would like to buy gifts with, here. Help us get the greatest gift of all, a baby. Please, can you help us? With hope; I send this story from my heart that maybe here is our chance for our family.

With love Mondreus and Amanda