Our family-building journey has been such a struggle for my wife and I. We knew that we had wanted children for the longest time but we were not able to start a family back home due to discrimination against same-sex families.

We were very hopeful when we started fertility testing in 2018. After two years and eight IUIs, we were blessed to find out that our second round of FFFS grant applications was successful! We were ecstatic to have the financial support to move on to other more invasive fertility treatments, and embarked on our first IVF cycle. We faced a loss, two unsuccessful embryo transfers and a failed private adoption before our last successful embryo transfer in July 2021.

Thanks to the love and support from the Family Fertility Fund of Saskatchewan, we were provided the opportunity to keep trying to complete our family even when faced with heartbreak, disappointment and loss.

We welcomed our precious twins Zuri and Aria on March 1, 2022, and they are perfect in every possible way! Our hearts are so full, our dreams have come true, and we are eternally grateful to the FFFS for being the shining light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel. The FFFS has changed our lives forever, and we will continue to support this amazing organization in any way possible!

I remember clearly the time where I wondered if I’d ever get to make my husband a dad. I wanted to be a mom too but I NEEDED to make my husband a father. He was literally meant to be a dad. So struggling through infertility, surrogacy, and loss made me wonder if we would ever be parents. Leaving the hospital empty armed after the stillbirth of our daughter Josie made it even harder to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

All the years of struggling and grief were for these moments with my son. He was the reason we kept going, the person we fought for when the fight felt too much. Though the road can be long, the tears of overwhelming joy the moment John touched my chest made the journey to him a little less painful and a lot more meaningful. THIS was the baby we got to bring home with us.

We are eternally grateful to the Family Fertility Fund of Saskatchewan and all of the volunteers that believe in equity and accessibility in reproductive healthcare. IVF would not have been possible for our family without their compassion and dedication. We wouldn’t have our perfect little boy in our arms today without the FFFS grant and the support of our friends and family. Thank you for giving us this incomparable gift, for allowing us to experience parenthood together, and for changing our lives forever by making River a part of it. Thank you.

After years of no luck, bad luck, near misses, crushing news and every other thing that comes with fertility issues, we were starting to feel like there wasn’t anything else we could do. After a lot of thinking and a long conversation, we decided that even though we didn’t know how we could afford it, we needed to try IVF in order to feel we did everything possible to have a baby biologically. As we saved and planned we tried to remain open with friends, family and others around us about what we were going through in hopes of both changing the stigma of fertility issues and finding support in our social circle. While we did find an overwhelming amount of support, the inaccurate but very real feeling that we were alone in our journey never completely went away.

During this time we reached out to the Family Fertility Fund in hopes that they might be able to help us. As we learned a bit about their organization we read their stories and noticed that some of them sounded a lot like ours. These were people that knew what we were going through and were doing what they could to help. We shared our story with them and, much to our surprise, they chose us as one of their grant recipients. This grant helped us to make our little miracle baby happen but above that, it helped us feel there were people out there actively listening and rooting us (and others just like us) on. They reminded us that we needed to move forward and offered us help to do so. For that, we are forever grateful and can’t thank them enough.

On August 20, 2020, we started a new chapter with Holden—a beautiful healthy baby that we just can’t get enough of. Thanks again to everyone at the Family Fertility Fund for all you do!