Help Us Bring Our Miracle Baby Home

💜 Help Us Bring Our Miracle Baby Home “I was born without a uterus, but becoming a mom has been my biggest dream for as long as I can remember.” I still have the school paper I drew as a little girl when my teacher asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. I didn’t have to think about my answer. I just drew myself surrounded by my husband and babies. For as long as I can remember, becoming a mother has been my biggest dream. At 14 years old, my life changed forever. After being rushed into emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix and sepsis, doctors discovered something unexpected while operating: I was born without a uterus. “You’re the one who can’t have kids…” A social worker accidentally blurted out the news before my doctors or mom had the chance to explain it to me properly. I still remember lying in my ICU hospital bed in complete shock, crying as I called my mom, who was downstairs, asking, “What does she mean I can’t have babies?” Further testing confirmed I have MRKH Syndrome Type 2, meaning I was born without a uterus and missing a kidney. From that moment on, I carried a grief deep in my heart that felt impossible to explain. But my love for babies and motherhood never left me. As the second oldest of six children, I helped care for my younger siblings from the time I was little. I grew up surrounded by babies, and caring for them brought me so much joy. That love eventually became my career, starting at 18 years old when I became an infant teacher. Today, I work as a postpartum doula, caring for newborns and supporting families during some of the most precious and vulnerable moments of their lives. Every time I hold a tiny baby in my arms, I am reminded of the dream I’ve carried in my heart my entire life: to someday hold one of my own. A few years ago, I met the love of my life, Oscar. As soon as we got married, we began trying to figure out how we could become parents despite MRKH. Then we received another devastating diagnosis: diminished ovarian reserve. We learned that my egg count was declining far earlier than expected, meaning our time to create embryos was limited. Our doctors told us we needed to move quickly. Because of the urgency, we took time off work and moved overseas to Tbilisi, Georgia, for two months to undergo IVF while we still had a chance. The journey was unbelievably difficult. Countless injections. Appointments. Ultrasounds. Procedures. Hormones. Fear. Pain. Surgeries. Complications. Recovery. As someone with MRKH, my egg retrievals were much more complicated than typical IVF procedures because my ovaries are located in unusual positions behind other organs, requiring multiple access points throughout my abdomen and pelvis. But against all odds… we created 7 embryos. Seven chances at becoming parents. Something we were once told might never happen. Our miracles. We are so deeply grateful to every single person who donated, prayed for us, shared our story, and supported us in making IVF possible. Because of your generosity, we were able to raise $8,000 toward IVF and embryo creation. Along with everything we personally poured into this process, it helped us create our precious embryos. We truly used every resource we had to make this happen. But creating embryos is only the beginning of the journey. Now, we must move forward with surrogacy in order to finally bring our baby into the world. Surrogacy is incredibly complex and expensive, even in the best-case scenario. To move forward, we need to raise $11,000 by August 1 to sign our surrogacy contract. This is the next step in a much larger journey. The base cost of our surrogacy journey is around $60,000+ for medical and legal costs, assuming everything goes smoothly and our embryo transfer is successful. Signing our contract by August 1 allows us to begin matching, legal processes, and preparing for embryo transfer. Because each step takes time, this timeline gives us a chance at a 2027 transfer and hopefully bringing our baby home by 2028. We have explored grants and loan options, but unfortunately the only loan we currently qualify for does not cover international surrogacy. Moving forward in Tbilisi is the only path that realistically works for us because of: • the overall cost • my rare medical condition requiring specialized care • and the current location of our embryos Our clinic and doctor in Tbilisi have extensive experience helping MRKH patients become parents, and we feel incredibly grateful for the care and hope they have given us. In addition to the surrogacy costs themselves, we are also working hard to plan and save for: • time off work • travel and relocation to Tbilisi • living expenses overseas for several months • and continuing to cover our rent and bills back home in the US while we are away We will also need to temporarily relocate overseas for several months before and after our baby is born, take time off work, and remain there until we can legally bring our baby home to the United States. It is a long process. And it is a lot. But this is our path to becoming parents. Despite all the heartbreak, fear, uncertainty, and grief, this journey has also been filled with hope, healing, love, and miracles we never thought we would see. We are closer than we have ever been, and we are holding onto hope that one day we will hold our miracle baby in our arms. If you feel called to support us in any way, whether through donating, sharing our story, or simply sending love and prayers, it would mean more than we could ever express. Thank you for being part of our journey. We truly could not do this without you. With all the gratitude in the world,  Ruth and Oscar 💜 “Fertility struggles don’t mean you’re not meant to have children. It means your children will have the most grateful parents ever.”