“For this child I prayed…” — 1 Samuel 1:27 Dear Friends, Family, and Community, Before we tell you about our fertility journey, we have to begin with the One who has carried us through it. God has been good to us. Not because our journey has been easy. Not because every prayer has been answered the way we wanted. And certainly not because we have been spared from heartbreak. God has been good because through some of the darkest seasons of our lives, Jesus has kept us. Our story is one of loss, but it is also a testimony of survival. It is a story of prayers prayed through tears, of getting back up when we didn't think we had the strength, and of discovering over and over again that God's faithfulness does not disappear when life hurts. And today, we're still believing. So Many Goodbyes Over the past several years, our family has experienced tremendous loss. We lost my mom. We lost my dad. We lost George's mom. We lost my dearest friend, We lost my aunt. We lost George's aunt. And we lost our baby through miscarriage. There are people who should be sitting around our table, celebrating birthdays, answering our phone calls, watching our children grow, and sharing this season of life with us who simply aren't here anymore. Then there was a moment when my family almost lost me too. During our miscarriage I experienced a life-threatening blood clot and came frighteningly close to becoming another goodbye. And then this past year with 3 different kinds of pneumonia and 26 days. in the hospital. But God spared my life. I don't take those words lightly. I am still here. Still loving my family. Still serving. Still creating. Still dreaming. Still praying. And when I look at everything God has brought me through, my life itself feels like part of my testimony. Three Years of Praying and Trying For the past three years, George and I have been actively trying to bring another child into our family. We've gone through fertility appointments, testing, medications, procedures, and IUI. We've invested financially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually in this journey. We've prayed before appointments. We've prayed while waiting for results. We've prayed through disappointment. We've prayed when we didn't understand. And when one attempt ended, we asked God for the strength and wisdom to determine whether we should try again. Now our journey has brought us to a new chapter. At 47, after three years of fertility treatment, IUI is no longer our best path forward. Our next opportunity is IVF using a donor egg. For us, pursuing IVF does not mean putting our faith in medicine instead of God. We believe the same God who gives physicians wisdom has allowed incredible medical advances to exist. We can pray and pursue treatment. We can trust God and accept help. We can have faith and acknowledge that sometimes the answer to a prayer arrives through doctors, donors, family, friends, and community. Choosing Life After Loss After experiencing so much death, our desire to welcome life has become even more precious. We aren't trying to replace anyone we've lost. No child could replace our parents, my brother, my aunt, or the baby we never had the opportunity to raise. Instead, grief has taught us to recognize the miracle contained in ordinary life. A little hand reaching for yours. A sleepy child climbing into your bed. First words. Birthdays. Family dinners. Bedtime prayers. Watching someone discover who God created them to be. We still have so much love to give. And after so many endings, we're asking God whether there might still be another beginning written into our story. This Is Where Our Village Comes In Three years of fertility treatment have already required a significant financial investment. Moving to donor-egg IVF brings expenses for donor eggs, medications, testing, monitoring, IVF procedures, embryo creation, and, we pray, an embryo transfer. We cannot comfortably carry all of those expenses alone. And asking for help requires its own kind of faith. Scripture has taught us that we were never designed to carry every burden by ourselves. Sometimes God's provision comes through the hands of other people. So we are humbly inviting our village to walk alongside us. If you feel led to give, every contribution—large or small—will help us move closer to being able to pursue donor-egg IVF. If you cannot give, please share our story. And above everything else, please pray with us. Pray for wisdom. Pray for provision. Pray for my body. Pray for our medical team and donor. Pray for peace throughout the process. And yes, pray with us for the child we hope one day to hold in our arms. Whatever Comes, God Has Been Good We've learned enough about faith to know that trusting God doesn't mean knowing exactly how the story will end. Our testimony isn't dependent upon getting the answer we want. Jesus has already been good to us. He was good when He carried us through grief. He was good when He gave us strength to bury people we loved. He was good when our hearts were broken. He was good when I survived. He was good through three years of trying. And He is good today, while we are still waiting. So we move forward with open hands. We will do what we can. We will pursue the opportunity in front of us. We will allow our community to help us. We will pray boldly. And ultimately, we will trust God with the outcome. We've said more goodbyes than we ever imagined. But because of Jesus, grief did not get the final word. Neither did disappointment. Neither did fear. We are still here. Still loving. Still believing. Still praying. Still choosing hope. Still trusting Jesus. And after so many goodbyes, we're praying that God might allow the next chapter of our family's story to begin with a beautiful little hello. Whatever happens, we know where our hope comes from. To God be the glory for what He has already done, for what He is doing right now, and for everything still to come. With faith, hope, and gratitude, Tanisha & George