Happy New Year!!

So it's the first day of 2012. So many people make resolutions and I'm NOT one of them...

What I decided to do this year (with the help, encouragement and guidance of many friends) was make a goal and do my best to meet it. My goal is to make/save/raise enough money for IVF. It won't be easy, and I'm not sure we can raise it all in one year. I'm prepared for my goal next year to be "finish making/saving/raising enough money for IVF." Heck, it may be my goal for the next FEW years. I guess we will have to see.

I've talked to many people over the last two and a half years about our situation. Some people only hear about our cancer battle. Others only hear about our infertility battle. Some get to hear it ALL. If you are reading this now, you will read all the details about all of our battles. I plan on blogging (almost) every day until our story is done. I sincerely hope our story is ever done though, because I hope to some day be pregnant, and I can then blog about that... and then I can blog about raising a baby. Maybe this should be named the Never Ending Blog :)

After talking to a wonderful friend last week, I decided it's beyond time to get serious about IVF. She is ready to help in any way possible to raise the money we need. So, I researched the laws on fundraising in Kansas. Then researched different ideas on fundraising. I figured my first step could be to start a blog. I talked to another friend and decided January 1st would be the best day to start. I was on pinterest last night and seen a post that said "Never give up on something you can't go a day without thinking about." That made me even more determined. So here I am. I would link it to our paypal, but honestly I have NO IDEA how to do that. Hopefully I can figure that out in the days to come. That way if you read our story and would like to donate, you can. I know it's a hard time for many people right now (I have been laid off for over a year now), so I'm not expecting to see large totals being tranferred into our account every day. Although that would be quite amazing!

A quick background on us... Well, my name is Destiny. My husband's name is Danny. We met in 2006, quickly became friends and that friendship turned into an amazing relationship. He has a daughter, Faith, from his previous marriage who I love and adore. I fell in love with her as I fell in love with Danny and I can't imagine life without her. We got married on June 13, 2009. The wedding was beautiful and it was one of the happiest days of my life.

 Five days after that magical day was one of the worst... I don't want to go into too much detail until I blog about that day, but you need to know what you will be reading about over the days/months to come. My husband was diagnosed with stage 3b colon cancer. He had surgery as soon as they could get him in and the cancer hadn't spread to any other organs. Chemo and radiation were a must and were scheduled. Then we had the fertility talk. Did we want kids? Yes. Yes yes yes. We had talked about future kids for years. No wasn't an option for us. So we had to bank Danny's sperm. The radiation would kill any chance of a baby for at least two years, maybe forever. So we had to preserve our chances before treatment of any kind could start. It was an ordeal in and of itself (you'll read about it soon enough, and don't worry there won't be any dirty details), but we finally got to the point where we could send 6 precious vials off to a bank in a state far away, and cancer treatment could begin.

That chapter in our lives has a happy ending. Danny is cancer free at this time. I hope and pray I can ALWAYS say that.
The next chapter will be BABIES. The only way we can have babies is through In Vitro Fertilization. This runs about $10,000 for each fresh cycle. And that doesn't include medication. Our insurance doesn't cover anything fertility related, so this will all be out of pocket.

I don't expect to raise enough money to pay for one or more rounds of IVF without having to pay for anything ourselves. Heck, I don't even WANT to do that. Having a baby solely benefits US. We get that experience, we get to watch him/her/them grow. We should have to put in some money too. And we will. We have decided we will begin saving as soon as our medical bills are paid off. That is just a few short months away (hopefullly... I am knocking on wood now). I can't wait to see that savings account grow and mature, and know that once we reach a certain number that we can try to have a baby.

Hopefully this blog will help us raise some money. If not, hopefully it will help some people understand what we are going through. Maybe it will convince one person to go get a colonoscopy because they don't want colon cancer. That would make me ecstatic. Maybe this blog will make you realize how lucky you are to be blessed with a healthy spouse and a healthy baby. If you are one of those lucky people, be sure to hug those loved ones extra tight.

I know we are blessed to have a happy marriage full of love. We are blessed to have fabulous doctors and surgeons who helped my husband beat his cancer. We are blessed to have family and friends who care about us and want to help us. I am so thankful for everything and everyone in our lives. And I hope to some day say we are blessed and are welcoming a baby(ies) into this world.

Tomorrow I will blog about the day we found out about Danny's tumor. It won't be easy for me, even two and a half years later. But I hope I can make you feel like you were there with us. You will read about every emotion I experienced that day. Every thought that is still so fresh in my mind.

I hope you come back to read often. I tend to ramble, especially about everything we have gone through. I apologize in advance for that. Please come back and read about our story and what we have gone through, what we've beat. And how much closer we get every day to our goal.