Hi Family & Friends, We are a very private family and have never been people who openly share much of our personal life. Putting our story out here and asking others for financial help feels incredibly vulnerable for us. It is not something we ever imagined we would have to do. But this dream means so much to our family that we decided it was worth stepping outside of our comfort zone and sharing our story. Our story with infertility began years ago when we lived in Japan. Through the journey with a fertility clinic, we were able to bring into the world, the greatest gift and miracle of our lives—our daughter, Emilee. She truly is our little miracle, as our journey in Japan, resulted in one precious embryo. It is the honor of our lives to be her parents, and is something we fought so hard for and will never take for granted. But our dream of having another child has not been an easy one. After several surgeries, lab work, appointments, medications, and due to our fertility challenges, IVF is the path we need to take again to grow our family. We knew going into this journey that it would be physically, emotionally, and financially difficult, but we decided that the possibility of giving Emilee a sibling was worth fighting for. We recently went through another egg retrieval process. It was a long and emotional process filled with appointments, medications, injections, uncertainty, and expenses. Through it all, we kept reminding ourselves why we were doing this. After everything we went through, we are incredibly fortunate to have 4 embryos that are currently frozen. We now have four little possibilities for our future. The difficult part is that having embryos is not the end of the journey. We still have the cost of preparing for and completing a frozen embryo transfer, along with the medications, appointments, and other expenses that come with treatment. IVF is largely an out-of-pocket expense for us. We have already done everything we can to contribute toward our fertility journey ourselves, including applying for many grants and taking funds from our savings, but the cost has become more than we can comfortably carry on our own & our insurance covers no portion of IVF treatments. That is why we are asking for help. Asking for financial support is not easy for us. We wish we could simply pay for everything ourselves and move forward without having to ask anyone for anything. But we also know that sometimes it takes a village to make a dream possible. Our hope is to give Emilee the gift of becoming a big sister and to welcome another miracle into our family. If you able to donate, share our fundraiser, or simply follow along and support us with your prayers, please know that you are helping be part of something incredibly meaningful to our family. Thank you for helping us be one step closer to our miracle. With love & gratitude, Kate, David & Emilee Newton