Growing Baby Flowers
Donation protected
For as long as I can remember, if I was in a room with my sister and a baby, my sister would be holding, reaching for, standing near, or staring at that baby (depending on degree of familiarity with said baby and parents). When her best friend had a baby, she was almost too happy to whisk her away for every diaper change. If you know Alexa Alvey Flowers, then you know that she was made to be a mother.
Flashback to the beginning of 2018. Alexa, at the age of 27, decided to make a major career change from healthcare Public Relations to going back to nursing school and eventually get her masters in Midwifery. Yes, you read that right. Midwifery. The profession that catches babies for a living. This woman is obsessed with babies, I tell you. But between classes, Alexa wouldn’t stop talking about her timeline—when Jon, her loving hubby, gets deployed, she’ll go visit him in March during Spring Break, get pregnant, and they’ll have a baby by the time she graduates nursing school and Jon returns from deployment. “I want to waddle across the stage at graduation,” she’d say. It was simple. This was her plan and she was sticking to it.
But you know what they say about God and making plans.
November, 2018. After weeks of weird pressure headaches and random spurts of nausea and vomiting (we all choked it up to her body adjusting after getting off of her birth control; some even suggested she was already pregnant), Alexa’s legs gave out and she knew it was time to go to the ER. Her nursing school bestie, Merrill (who also was back in nursing school to become a Midwife), took her to the ER, and later to the hospital where she remained for 10 days. To read more about this experience, go visit Lex’s blog at: justagirlandhertumor.wordpress.com.
Despite the shock of discovering a golf ball-sized brain tumor on her cerebellum pressing against her brainstem (making it inoperable), Alexa also had to grieve the fact that this meant she could never get pregnant and birth her own child, which in some ways has been harder for her to come to terms with. Why are those related? Basically: Human Growth Hormone + Inoperable Brain Mass = Aggravated Tumor (a.k.a. Cancer). Meaning if she went ahead and got pregnant anyway, she might not be around long enough to see her child grow up.
So, there’s the dilemma. But, there’s a solution.
Before undergoing Radiation Treatment, Alexa removed and froze her eggs (and boy was she fertile). Jon does his part and (ta dah) they made embryos—fully Alexa and Jon’s kiddies. Now the next step was finding a warm, welcoming womb to let that kiddo grow in.
Remember Merrill? The nursing school bestie who took Alexa to the ER that night in November? Well, she’s married with two beautiful toddlers. Even though their family is done growing, Merrill always felt like she wanted to—needed to—be pregnant one more time and considered becoming a gestational carrier. This was before we knew anything about a brain tumor, mind you. And after weeks of quietly considering and having logistical conversations, Merrill offered her glorious uterus to the cause.
Seems like fate, right? I think so too. Sometimes, that’s the hardest part—finding the gestational carrier. However, the hardest part has turned into funding this endeavor. Did you know that insurance will pay to remove your eggs, but won’t pay to put them back into someone else, even if it’s for a health reason? Did you know that a woman needs to take expensive medications to prepare her body for egg removal, and a gestational carrier needs to take expensive medications to quiet her own eggs down temporarily in order to receive an embryo? Did you know that it costs $16,000 just to transfer an embryo into a uterus?! Once. Assuming it works the first time. Unfortunately, insurance companies just won’t cover surrogacy costs. Because they don’t have to. And I think that sucks.
Now, I apologize that this turned into one of those life story essays that you need to scroll through in order to finally get to the recipe at the bottom, but I hoped to explain to you all the reality of the situation, and the sincere plea for your help. My big sister has an inoperable brain tumor. It’s under control for now, but as we look into the future, it becomes a little unclear. Still, the one thing that she wants more than anything is her baby. Please share this story with your family members, coworkers, church groups. Please donate. This has been a very dark year filled with hope and prayers. Alexa and Jon are the most deserving people of a family. They’ve come so far, and together we can help them achieve this dream. That’s right, people. Together, we can help dreams come true.
Follow along at their blog: www.growingbabyflowers.com
Flashback to the beginning of 2018. Alexa, at the age of 27, decided to make a major career change from healthcare Public Relations to going back to nursing school and eventually get her masters in Midwifery. Yes, you read that right. Midwifery. The profession that catches babies for a living. This woman is obsessed with babies, I tell you. But between classes, Alexa wouldn’t stop talking about her timeline—when Jon, her loving hubby, gets deployed, she’ll go visit him in March during Spring Break, get pregnant, and they’ll have a baby by the time she graduates nursing school and Jon returns from deployment. “I want to waddle across the stage at graduation,” she’d say. It was simple. This was her plan and she was sticking to it.
But you know what they say about God and making plans.
November, 2018. After weeks of weird pressure headaches and random spurts of nausea and vomiting (we all choked it up to her body adjusting after getting off of her birth control; some even suggested she was already pregnant), Alexa’s legs gave out and she knew it was time to go to the ER. Her nursing school bestie, Merrill (who also was back in nursing school to become a Midwife), took her to the ER, and later to the hospital where she remained for 10 days. To read more about this experience, go visit Lex’s blog at: justagirlandhertumor.wordpress.com.
Despite the shock of discovering a golf ball-sized brain tumor on her cerebellum pressing against her brainstem (making it inoperable), Alexa also had to grieve the fact that this meant she could never get pregnant and birth her own child, which in some ways has been harder for her to come to terms with. Why are those related? Basically: Human Growth Hormone + Inoperable Brain Mass = Aggravated Tumor (a.k.a. Cancer). Meaning if she went ahead and got pregnant anyway, she might not be around long enough to see her child grow up.
So, there’s the dilemma. But, there’s a solution.
Before undergoing Radiation Treatment, Alexa removed and froze her eggs (and boy was she fertile). Jon does his part and (ta dah) they made embryos—fully Alexa and Jon’s kiddies. Now the next step was finding a warm, welcoming womb to let that kiddo grow in.
Remember Merrill? The nursing school bestie who took Alexa to the ER that night in November? Well, she’s married with two beautiful toddlers. Even though their family is done growing, Merrill always felt like she wanted to—needed to—be pregnant one more time and considered becoming a gestational carrier. This was before we knew anything about a brain tumor, mind you. And after weeks of quietly considering and having logistical conversations, Merrill offered her glorious uterus to the cause.
Seems like fate, right? I think so too. Sometimes, that’s the hardest part—finding the gestational carrier. However, the hardest part has turned into funding this endeavor. Did you know that insurance will pay to remove your eggs, but won’t pay to put them back into someone else, even if it’s for a health reason? Did you know that a woman needs to take expensive medications to prepare her body for egg removal, and a gestational carrier needs to take expensive medications to quiet her own eggs down temporarily in order to receive an embryo? Did you know that it costs $16,000 just to transfer an embryo into a uterus?! Once. Assuming it works the first time. Unfortunately, insurance companies just won’t cover surrogacy costs. Because they don’t have to. And I think that sucks.
Now, I apologize that this turned into one of those life story essays that you need to scroll through in order to finally get to the recipe at the bottom, but I hoped to explain to you all the reality of the situation, and the sincere plea for your help. My big sister has an inoperable brain tumor. It’s under control for now, but as we look into the future, it becomes a little unclear. Still, the one thing that she wants more than anything is her baby. Please share this story with your family members, coworkers, church groups. Please donate. This has been a very dark year filled with hope and prayers. Alexa and Jon are the most deserving people of a family. They’ve come so far, and together we can help them achieve this dream. That’s right, people. Together, we can help dreams come true.
Follow along at their blog: www.growingbabyflowers.com
Organizer and beneficiary
Rachel Alvey
Organizer
Sterling, VA
Alexa Flowers
Beneficiary