A Decision

How we were going to start our family has been on the back of our minds since we recieved Faith's diagnosis. What makes most sense for us, what could we handle, and what couldn't we handle are both questions we had to answer. The answer to these questions will be so different for everyone who is faced with having to choose, but for us, we wanted to do everything we can to have a genetic child.



Seeing it written as a child is something i'm still learning to come to grips with. We always wanted at least 3 children, a big family. I think back to the us who wanted 3 children, we were so innocent to believe we were the ones who decided how many children we could bring into this world. Having a child is something which cannot be planned on my terms, our terms. We have to take it one day at a time, knowing it is so completly out of our control, and hope for the best. While we still dream for a large family, we will be incredibly grateful to have the chance to care for just one child.



Once we decided we were going to pursue the options available to us for genetic children, we had to decided which of those we would be able to "handle". I say handle in this way because, while I know things are out of our control, we were given 2 options, and we chose the path which gave us the best odds for concieving a healthy child. After 2 consecutive losses, I just can't imagine us going through it again, putting our families through it again, or learning mid pregnancy that things aren't going well, and our child may be disabled, and/or may not survive at all. At this time in our lives, we cannot handle the thought of loosing another child, having to make a difficult decision, or be faced with the stresses of an un healthy pregnancy, so we have decided to pursue In-Vitro Fertilization with pre-genetic implantation screening. We feel very fortunate to have this option at all.



Luckily for us, I work in Illinois where infertility treatment is required to be included as a part of my health insurance. I'm not sure of the specifics about what is/is not required, and what type of companies must comply, but luckily for us, I have a $20,000 lifetime coverage for IVF. This will cover at least 1 treatment, as IVF can range anywhere from 10,000-15,000. We hope our first treatment is successful, however, i'm trying to remain grounded knowing that it may not take.



Our insurance will not cover the pre-implantation screening, so we still have quite a bit of details to work out... but that being said, we have plenty of time.