Our story begins 19 years ago, on April 18, 2007.
We have both experienced incredible travel adventures, filled with laughter, joy, but also challenges. Our love culminated in marriage after 10 years of living together, and 8 years ago we decided to immigrate to Canada to settle down and start our family.
The desire to create our family was obvious and we naturally tried for 2 years without success.
Our arduous journey began with consultations at fertility clinics, several unsuccessful attempts at treatments and protocols. Grief, disillusionment, and disappointment accompanied us, but we remained united and chose each other.
Around us, families are growing, bellies are swelling. We are filled with joy to have children in our lives, but the joy of parenthood is denied us. After several years of treatments, we take a break from fertility treatments to reconnect with ourselves and explore alternative therapies: naturopathy, acupuncture, and therapy with psychologists. Taking a step back to start again later helps us feel like we’ve been given a new lease on life. Since the cause of our infertility remains unexplained, we still hold onto a glimmer of hope of conceiving naturally.
We don’t talk about it much around us because we’re not ready to receive well-intentioned but often clumsy advice.
We resumed treatment. The last step was an IVF cycle with a final embryo transfer that was successful. After eight years, we were told we were pregnant! We were overjoyed. We knew we had to wait three months, but it was the first time it had worked. We were happy but kept this little bit of joy to ourselves. At the eight-week ultrasound, the verdict came. We would not be parents.
Sadness, grief, incomprehension, injustice. But hope remains, and we tell ourselves that if it worked once, it should work again. We decide to contact the Fertility Friend Foundation, which is a great support.
We are now part of a community with people who are going through the same thing as us. The financial assistance is also a tremendous support. We are deeply grateful to have been chosen and thank the foundation from the bottom of our hearts for giving us another chance to have a child!
Caroline and Yoann