I’ve been dying to do this blog post for way too long. Such beauty deserves to be seen by the world!
Since I’m so behind on blogging (hello, busy season!), Mike and Kim have since welcomed baby Mason into the world. We keep in touch via social media, and he is sooo handsome. He’s such a special guy. Even before he was born, I knew how special he was to his family because he was an IVF baby! They waited so long for him, and went through so much to get to hold him in their arms, and I was just over the moon to able to document this incredibly happy time for them.
When I asked Kim if I could share a little bit about their story, she was so open about it and actually, she was kind enough to share a bit in her own words about their journey. We thought this might be a way to help anyone who may be going through the same, and even those who aren’t personally, but likely know someone who is.
Mike & Kim’s story…
1 in 8 couples experience fertility issues and their journey to parenthood takes a bit of a detour. It is not always easy to cope as your plans change, doctors get involved and your focus from positive tests changes to healthy embryos – but lucky for us – the end result remains the same.
Our journey was not typical – but more common than you know. Fertility is a sensitive and mostly private subject. A subject that we dealt with internally during our journey to pregnancy (as many in our situation do) in the hopes to share with our closest family and friends when the time came. We hope our story helps shed some light on the issues we (and many other couples) go through to start their families.
We wanted a family forever – it is not a secret that anyone who knows us would attest to that. You don’t expect it to happen overnight but you do expect it to happen. After months of no changes in our family status, it was time to get more information. It’s a nervous time, there are a lot of answers to questions that you may not want to know, you hope for the best and prepare for the some of the worst.
After countless doctors appointments and tests, it was decided our best path to parenthood would be through IVF treatments. We started them in June 2017. Three injections a day for nearly two weeks plus doctors appointments every other day, all while still maintaining full time jobs and a sense of normalcy in our lives. Covering/lying for each other with family and friends became difficult, but a small sacrifice we were more than willing to make.
Our embryo transfer occurred in early September 2017. After taking care of the most precious cargo alive, we had the amazing experience of seeing our first positive test on September 11th – more than a year after we decided to try to start a family.
While we are more than excited to be planning for parenthood we do think it is important to recognize the other side of this coin as we know first hand that this post could affect those people who are the position we were in a year ago, right now. We hope that this provides some of the hope those couples need to stay positive on their journey – no matter how difficult it may be at this very moment.
We went through the weight of numerous negative tests, we dealt with what seems like the endless amounts of pregnancy announcements on our news feeds and the joy you feel for those couples coupled with the reality of your situation. We weighed the financial impact of having to decide if you can even afford to proceed and the “why you” thoughts that want to creep in. We went through the holidays with nothing to announce to the family members that wanted nothing more than for us to bring them great news and the countless other situations that bring unnecessary stress to what should be the best process of your life.
We recognize the struggle and while our journey is not any more or less special than any other one – we want to say to those couples that we are thinking of you now and the end justifies the means. We would not trade what we went through for anything. We are more grateful to have experienced it and will be better parents because of it.
Baby Powers was worth the wait!
So grateful to Mike and Kim for sharing their story so candidly, and for trusting me with such a special moment in their lives!
