My husband and I have always believed that family is one of life’s greatest gifts. We both grew up with siblings, and our older children had the experience of growing up with siblings as well. Those relationships—the companionship, memories, support, and lifelong connection between brothers and sisters—are something we deeply value and hope to give our youngest daughter, Palela. Our path to growing our family has not been simple. When I was 22 years old, I had my tubes tied. At that age, I believed our family was complete and that I was making a permanent decision I would never reconsider. As the years passed, however, my husband and I realized that we still had a strong desire to expand our family. Because of my tubal ligation, IVF became our path forward. In early 2024, we began that journey. At age 41, I underwent an egg retrieval in April. Ten eggs were retrieved, seven fertilized, and three developed into blastocysts. After genetic testing, only one embryo was chromosomally normal. That one little embryo became our daughter, Palela. Our IVF journey happened during one of the most difficult periods our family has ever experienced. On March 9, 2024, just weeks before my egg retrieval, our 18-year-old son, AJ, passed away unexpectedly. Losing AJ changed our family forever. There are no words that can adequately describe the loss of a child. AJ can never be replaced, and our desire to have another child is not an attempt to replace him. Our plans to expand our family had already begun before his death. He will always be our son, Palela’s brother, and an irreplaceable part of our family. His loss did, however, profoundly change the way we look at life, time, and family. It taught us just how precious our relationships with one another are and how meaningful the bonds between siblings can be. Palela has brought tremendous joy into our lives while we have continued to carry our grief for AJ. She has shown us that grief and happiness can coexist and that loving another child does not diminish the love we have for the child we lost. As Palela has grown, our desire to give her a sibling has only become stronger. She absolutely adores other children. Watching her light up around them reminds us of the relationships my husband and I had with our own siblings and the relationships our older children shared growing up. We would love for Palela to have a sibling close enough in age to grow up beside her—to play together, learn together, create childhood memories together, and hopefully carry that relationship into adulthood. Unfortunately, IVF comes with an enormous upfront financial cost. My husband and I both work and have built a stable home for our family. We are able to provide for our children and meet their everyday needs. But being financially capable of raising another child is very different from having tens of thousands of dollars readily available for fertility treatment, medications, monitoring, egg retrieval, fertilization, genetic testing, and embryo transfer. This year also brought an unexpected financial setback. I suffered a serious ankle fracture that required surgery and a lengthy recovery. I had to take significant time away from work while recovering, and my husband also had to miss work to help care for me, our baby, and our household while I was unable to function normally. That interruption in our income was not something we could have planned for. Although we worked hard to remain financially responsible throughout my recovery, the time away from work and the additional expenses associated with my injury made it much more difficult to rebuild our savings and set aside the substantial amount required for another IVF cycle. We are not asking someone else to carry the entire financial responsibility of growing our family. We are willing to contribute toward treatment ourselves and make sacrifices to pursue another cycle. What we are asking for is help bridging a financial gap that has become difficult for us to overcome on our own. Receiving a Gift of Parenthood grant could make the difference between having to postpone treatment and being able to move forward while we still have the opportunity to try. We also understand that another IVF cycle does not guarantee another baby. We have been through this process before, and we understand both its possibilities and its uncertainties. Our first retrieval showed us just how much has to happen for IVF to succeed: ten eggs ultimately resulted in one chromosomally normal embryo. And somehow, that one embryo became the little girl we now get to hold every day. We are incredibly grateful for her. We are simply hoping for the opportunity to try once more. A Gift of Parenthood grant would mean far more to our family than assistance with a medical bill. It would allow us to pursue another IVF cycle without taking on a level of debt that could compromise the financial stability we have worked hard to maintain. It would give us the chance to continue building the family we envisioned years ago, and it would give Palela the possibility of experiencing the sibling relationship that has meant so much throughout our own lives. Our family’s story has included love, devastating loss, perseverance, and an extraordinary amount of hope. AJ will always be part of our family and part of our story. Palela is one of the greatest gifts that IVF has given us. With the help of a Gift of Parenthood grant, we hope we might be given the opportunity to write one more chapter. How we'll use the funds: Egg retrieval, along with other needed medical procedures that come along with it.