Steph and John's Journey to Parenthood via IVF

All of you, who know John and Stephanie Donahue know that they are the most giving, selfless, loving and kind hearted people that I know. Both would do anything for anyone, no questions asked.

John and Steph are humble, modest and private people but have given me permission to share their story.

Some of you may know the journey they have been on over the past year (many years really) but specifically, the IVF journey over the past year.

John and Steph have been together for 14 years, married for 7. They have the perfect love story and are absolutely perfect together. After marriage, they decided to try and get pregnant and have since been fighting a long and hard journey to become parents.

Ehen that didn’t come naturally, they made the decision to seek medical advice. That’s when they found that Steph needed multiple surgeries to get her body prepared to even have a chance to conceive. Unfortunately, they are unable to conceive, naturally, ever!

So, that took them to their IVF Journey.

I cannot put into words how exhausting and emotional the next few months were. Steph had to take a lot of medication, and give herself shots, multiple times a day. Multiple doctor appointments and surgeries.

Thankfully the surgeries were successful which brought them to the next steps in their IVF journey.

Steph was prepped and underwent a procedure that was successful in retrieving 3 embryos. With Stephs age they made the decision to genetically test the embryos. The 1st embryo was not good. The 2nd was a perfect girl. The 3rd didn’t have enough DNA to test. The chances were slim but they went ahead with planting the 1 good embryo. As you can imagine the worry and stress that took place over the next few weeks waiting to see if the embryo took.

The day came that Steph went in for her pregnancy test. Hours of wait and finally the phone rang to say that unfortunately it didn’t work and she was not pregnant. I cannot put into words how devastating that news was for Steph and John. They would do anything to have the chance to become parents. They deserve to be parents.

This journey has been a long as well as an emotionally and physically draining process. IVF is so expensive. Both have full time jobs. John is a federal firefighter for Joint base Charleston and Steph is an Office Manager for State Farm. Unfortunately, insurance does not cover IVF whatsoever. The 1st round cost them $32,000.00 (that included the surgeries). In order to go through it again, it’s going to cost an additional $20,000.00.

Another round of IVF cannot even be possible without the help from all of their friends and family.

John and Steph are not asking for help, I am. As Steph’s best friend, I am asking for each of their friends and family to come together as Steph and John would for anyone else and help give them a chance to become parents. They deserve this and would be the absolute best parents!

Thank you in advance for love, prayers and donations to help give two of the most kind-hearted people I know a chance to become parents ❤️