The Little Lotus Project
Donation protected
Hi! We are Branson and Kristy Whitman. Kristy met Branson in 2010 and what started out as a friendship and two years of pursuing on Branson's part led to a wonderful, loving marriage of more than 3 1/2 years.
We said "I do" on April 13th, 2013.
We have a beautiful little girl from Branson's first marriage and 3 adorable furbabies - a dog (King Louie Mallowmar Yodle Whitman, III), a rabbit (Boggle Macaroni Nahdle Whitman, PhD), and our newest addition, a white calico kitten (Full name is Duchess Kira Macadamia Bliss Whitman, but we just call her Kira!). Both of us work for the American Red Cross and are part of the worship team for First United Methodist Church in downtown Peoria, IL.
In July of 2013, we decided we wanted to start having children! Little did we know what a difficult path that would be. After one year of trying, we went and saw a specialist in Peoria, IL. We learned IVF was our best shot at having a child of our own, as the Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) said he suspected Kristy had endometriosis and adenomyosis. We decided to cycle the following year.
In March 2015, we went into our first IVF cycle. It was overwhelming to say the least! Lots of shots, tests, bloodwork, and ultrasounds. But we were extremely optimistic this was the answer, and that we would be holding our first child together by that time next year.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. We had 13 eggs retrieved, 6 were mature, and only 1 fertilized normally. That single embryo stopped growing on Day 5 and we were left hearbroken, confused, and at a complete loss.
In May of that same year, Kristy began experiencing extreme pain in her pelvis and back. A diagnostic laparoscopy was performed in August 2015, but unfortunately the case was too complex for the first surgeon. Kristy's uterus was frozen into place by adhesions, and her ovaries were wrapped aruond the back of her uterus. She had to be referred to a specialty surgeon with Illinois Cancer Care and had a second surgery in November 2015.
The surgery was successful, but within 4 months the pain started to come back. By early summer, the pain was becoming increasingly severe. While a 2016 IVF cycle was not part of our plan, due to the worsening of the Endometriosis and the likelihood that Kristy will have to have a hysterectomy within the next 5 years due to how quickly the Endometriosis grew back, we decided we needed to move quickly into another cycle.
We chose to use a clinic in St. Louis for our second round. After the initial consult and information, we believed we were at the right clinic for us. In order to pay for the cycle, our best option was to put the expenses on credit cards.
Our second IVF cycle was in October 2016. It involved a lot of travel on Kristy's part and more than 25 needle pokes and lab draws. During the second cycle, we had 17 eggs retrieved, 14 were mature, but only 2 fertilized normally. Hearing the numbers drop again like that was devastating. We later found out that both of our beautiful embryos stopped growing on Day 5.
We now have 3 beautiful babies in heaven, as we believe that life begins the moment a child is conceived. We had names for these babies picked out - we had plans for their futures. They may have only been on this earth for 5 short days, but they were part of us. They were part of who we are.
We are not ready to give up our dream of having a child together, as husband and wife. We want to cycle again, and after speaking with our doctor, the sooner we cycle again, the better - so time is of the essence. Not only does the clinic recommend back-to-back cycles (within 3-4 months) to increase chances of success after a failed cycle, but Kristy's pain from the Endometriosis is becoming crippling.
We know that this is not a life or death situation. But it is our hope and dream to have children together. An IVF Cycle plus the medications needed can cost upwards of $18,000. Not only that, there is likely further testing needed on Kristy and/orBranson. We cannot afford on our own to cycle again without some help.
For the past 3 years, we have had to choose between moving forward with our best shot at having children (IVF) or improving our lives within our existing family. Kristy has felt she needed to sacrifice her dream of having children for the sake of Branson's daughter so she can have family vacations and maybe even a new house one day. And while she has happily made this sacrifice for several years now, it's time to stop putting her dream - our dream - on the backburner because we believe we are running out of time. Kristy wants so badly to give Branson a child and to give her beautiful bonus daughter a sibling that has just two legs instead of four.
We know this is a hard time of year to be asking for money with the holidays coming up. But as the clinic requires us to pay the money up front, we would need the funds ASAP as we would like to cycle in January 2017. All money raised will go to pay for this IVF cycle and pay down the almost $18,000 we have in debt from our October cycle. Any additional money will be donated to research for either infertiltiy or endometriosis.
Any donation, big or small, will mean more to us than we could ever express. Even if you can't donate and just share our story - raise awareness about infertility and help remove the stigma associated with it - we would be grateful. 1 in 8 couples struggle with infertility. We are 1 in 8. We want other couples to know they are not alone. It is just as important to us that we raise awareness as it is to raise funds for our upcoming cycle.
We are thankful to anyone who even read our story. If you are able to donate and do donate, we would be so grateful - because you are helping us bring a long time dream to life. This was never part of our plan. We did not want to end up asking for help financially.
We will have an update with a video sharing more of our story thanks to our friends Kate and Jeremy with The Lavin Production Company.
We will also soon be making a private Facebook group we created public so you can follow our journey.
Thank you, again, for your support. God bless!!!
Kristy and Branson Whitman
We said "I do" on April 13th, 2013.
We have a beautiful little girl from Branson's first marriage and 3 adorable furbabies - a dog (King Louie Mallowmar Yodle Whitman, III), a rabbit (Boggle Macaroni Nahdle Whitman, PhD), and our newest addition, a white calico kitten (Full name is Duchess Kira Macadamia Bliss Whitman, but we just call her Kira!). Both of us work for the American Red Cross and are part of the worship team for First United Methodist Church in downtown Peoria, IL.
In July of 2013, we decided we wanted to start having children! Little did we know what a difficult path that would be. After one year of trying, we went and saw a specialist in Peoria, IL. We learned IVF was our best shot at having a child of our own, as the Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) said he suspected Kristy had endometriosis and adenomyosis. We decided to cycle the following year.
In March 2015, we went into our first IVF cycle. It was overwhelming to say the least! Lots of shots, tests, bloodwork, and ultrasounds. But we were extremely optimistic this was the answer, and that we would be holding our first child together by that time next year.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. We had 13 eggs retrieved, 6 were mature, and only 1 fertilized normally. That single embryo stopped growing on Day 5 and we were left hearbroken, confused, and at a complete loss.
In May of that same year, Kristy began experiencing extreme pain in her pelvis and back. A diagnostic laparoscopy was performed in August 2015, but unfortunately the case was too complex for the first surgeon. Kristy's uterus was frozen into place by adhesions, and her ovaries were wrapped aruond the back of her uterus. She had to be referred to a specialty surgeon with Illinois Cancer Care and had a second surgery in November 2015.
The surgery was successful, but within 4 months the pain started to come back. By early summer, the pain was becoming increasingly severe. While a 2016 IVF cycle was not part of our plan, due to the worsening of the Endometriosis and the likelihood that Kristy will have to have a hysterectomy within the next 5 years due to how quickly the Endometriosis grew back, we decided we needed to move quickly into another cycle.
We chose to use a clinic in St. Louis for our second round. After the initial consult and information, we believed we were at the right clinic for us. In order to pay for the cycle, our best option was to put the expenses on credit cards.
Our second IVF cycle was in October 2016. It involved a lot of travel on Kristy's part and more than 25 needle pokes and lab draws. During the second cycle, we had 17 eggs retrieved, 14 were mature, but only 2 fertilized normally. Hearing the numbers drop again like that was devastating. We later found out that both of our beautiful embryos stopped growing on Day 5.
We now have 3 beautiful babies in heaven, as we believe that life begins the moment a child is conceived. We had names for these babies picked out - we had plans for their futures. They may have only been on this earth for 5 short days, but they were part of us. They were part of who we are.
We are not ready to give up our dream of having a child together, as husband and wife. We want to cycle again, and after speaking with our doctor, the sooner we cycle again, the better - so time is of the essence. Not only does the clinic recommend back-to-back cycles (within 3-4 months) to increase chances of success after a failed cycle, but Kristy's pain from the Endometriosis is becoming crippling.
We know that this is not a life or death situation. But it is our hope and dream to have children together. An IVF Cycle plus the medications needed can cost upwards of $18,000. Not only that, there is likely further testing needed on Kristy and/orBranson. We cannot afford on our own to cycle again without some help.
For the past 3 years, we have had to choose between moving forward with our best shot at having children (IVF) or improving our lives within our existing family. Kristy has felt she needed to sacrifice her dream of having children for the sake of Branson's daughter so she can have family vacations and maybe even a new house one day. And while she has happily made this sacrifice for several years now, it's time to stop putting her dream - our dream - on the backburner because we believe we are running out of time. Kristy wants so badly to give Branson a child and to give her beautiful bonus daughter a sibling that has just two legs instead of four.
We know this is a hard time of year to be asking for money with the holidays coming up. But as the clinic requires us to pay the money up front, we would need the funds ASAP as we would like to cycle in January 2017. All money raised will go to pay for this IVF cycle and pay down the almost $18,000 we have in debt from our October cycle. Any additional money will be donated to research for either infertiltiy or endometriosis.
Any donation, big or small, will mean more to us than we could ever express. Even if you can't donate and just share our story - raise awareness about infertility and help remove the stigma associated with it - we would be grateful. 1 in 8 couples struggle with infertility. We are 1 in 8. We want other couples to know they are not alone. It is just as important to us that we raise awareness as it is to raise funds for our upcoming cycle.
We are thankful to anyone who even read our story. If you are able to donate and do donate, we would be so grateful - because you are helping us bring a long time dream to life. This was never part of our plan. We did not want to end up asking for help financially.
We will have an update with a video sharing more of our story thanks to our friends Kate and Jeremy with The Lavin Production Company.
We will also soon be making a private Facebook group we created public so you can follow our journey.
Thank you, again, for your support. God bless!!!
Kristy and Branson Whitman
Organizer
Kristy Whitman
Organizer
East Peoria, IL