More than anything, Kassy wanted children since she was a young child herself—and if possible, a large family of her own. So at 15 years of age when her period still hadn’t shown up, she became concerned. Her doctor at the time shrugged it off, telling her not to worry. But later that same year, Kassy began to experience extreme abdominal pain, enough to go back in to get checked out. Despite not being sexually active, her doctor told her she was having a miscarriage. Several years passed, and when Kassy was 18 she became very ill after eating some bad fast food, winding up in the emergency room at St. Francis Medical Center. It was here that medical professionals performed an abdominal CT scan; however, she would not know details of the scan for another decade. By age 25, Kassy began to suspect a biological child would not be possible, so when her brother asked her to adopt his second child, she jumped at the opportunity and, in 2012, she adopted her daughter. In 2015 Kassy met Larry; they married in 2018. The following year the couple began to look further into the reasons why Kassy had still never experienced a period. After seeing an OBGYN and requesting the details of her old CT scan, she finally found answers. Kassy was diagnosed with MRKH Type 2. Simply put, she had been born without most of her reproductive organs and without her left kidney. Because Kassy and Larry had been hoping for a biological child, the doctor referred them to the Center for Reproductive Medicine to explore the option of surrogacy. At CRM, doctors discovered Kassy did have ovaries and could, in fact, be the mother of a biological child. In preparation for an egg retrieval, she began working on losing weight.

In 2020 Kassy began having trouble walking. By the time she went to the hospital, she could not feel anything below her chest, and needed emergency surgery to remove an abscess growing on her spine. After the surgery Kassy learned that bacterial meningitis had been scraped off her spine and, in addition, she had developed COVID pneumonia. Ten days later, she was released from the hospital and began the long process of learning how to walk once again. Now, in 2022, Kassy and Larry have finally been given the green light to move forward with surrogacy.

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As most of our friends and family probably realize, surrogacy is expensive and, despite savings and some financing, we are still short the necessary funds. Neither of us like asking for help but feel that we have come to the place where we have no other option. Having helped many friends over the years, we now find that we are the ones needing the help. Any and all donations are appreciated from the bottoms of our hearts. Please help us reach our goal of becoming parents together.