With A Little Help From My Friends

I am convinced that I have the best friends in the world.

I have friends who have known me so long they helped make me who I am, friends I learned independence alongside as we left home to travel the country, friends who taught me vulnerability and trust as we shared the stage, friends who made college some of the most memorable years of my life, friends who inspire me daily with the way they pursue their dreams, friends who show up no matter the distance, friends I couldn’t survive the low points without, friends who care deeply and love me so well.

I am the luckiest to have had such friends reach out to hold my hand as we have traveled this long road to having a child.

Some of those friends conspired to help us with one of the most difficult aspects of IVF - the finances.

Assisted reproductive technology is very expensive. It’s also not covered by a good majority of insurance plans. (Only 16 states have infertility insurance coverage laws - I live in one of them! And we are still not covered because so little is required.) We knew that IVF was our only option to conceive a child. We also knew that our time to wait was limited because I have a diminished ovarian reserve - which means that despite being 30, I only have the number of eggs that a woman in her 40’s might expect to have. So, running low on eggs, time, and funds… we knew that we needed to make a move despite the financial stress.

My friends - always interested, always checking in - decided to do something about it. They started a GoFundMe campaign for Baby Hackman. It’s been SO overwhelming to receive help in this way, but we are more grateful than we can say.

This has been such a hard season for us, but this has been one of the most redemptive parts of our story. We could not do it alone, and our friends, our community have just rallied around us. And it’s not just the GoFundMe - it’s others who have reached out to us individually, who have lifted us up in other ways. We have felt so seen and so loved. What a tribe to belong to, y’all!

They say it takes a village to raise a child, well, in our case… it takes a village to make one too. We can’t wait for Baby Hackman to know their story, and to know that they were loved to life by our friends.