My husband and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for everything you do to help couples achieve their dream of becoming parents, and to share our story. We hope it might encourage someone else.

My husband and I are high school sweethearts who wanted to start our family not long after we were married. I don’t know why, but I had a feeling that it would be hard for us. After about a year of trying to get pregnant I went to my OB doctor to see if something was wrong. It was determined that I may have a condition called polycystic ovarian syndrome which causes me not to ovulate regularly. Then it was my husband’s turn to get checked out. We were shocked to find out that his sperm count was only ONE, especially when a normal count is like twenty million! My husband was a normal healthy 32 year old man with no history of childhood illness or injuries. We visited several urologists who told us that he is young and suggested he take some expensive vitamins and wait to see if they help. Then we went to a local reproductive endocrinologist who told us that if I wanted to become pregnant I would need a sperm donor because my husband had nothing to work with. This was hard to hear and very discouraging.

Instead of continuing to “try” for a baby we just started praying and saving money. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do but I knew it would be expensive! We looked into foster parenting, adoption, sperm donors and IVF. Meanwhile everyone I knew, worked with, and was related to was pregnant! I was happy for them, but at the same time sad for myself. I had days where I wondered if I’d ever be a mom, but deep down I always had this peace that God gave me that we would eventually be parents.

Then one summer day I was flipping through the channels and saw this show on the Discovery Health channel about IVF. It was Dr. Silber and his staff in St. Louis. The couples had fertility issues similar to ours. That show gave me so much hope! I researched Dr. Silber and when I saw that he specialized in male infertility and difficult IVF cases I knew he was the doctor for us.

We flew up to St. Louis the following December for a consultation with Dr. Silber. We were afraid that he might say that we were not good candidates for IVF, but instead he said we were great candidates for it! He was so warm and sweet and encouraging. You could really tell that he cared. We left feeling so excited and couldn’t wait to come back! So the next summer we started the process.

The staff is so patient and kind. We live in Florida and they were so good about explaining things over the phone and making sure we understood all our meds, blood work, and ultrasounds that needed to be done before coming back up to St. Louis for the egg retrieval. After the procedure we had six embryos that made it to the three day gestation and freezing process.

December 13, 2011 we had two embryos implanted in my uterus. We had the best Christmas of our lives being able to tell our entire family that after eight years of marriage, and six years of trying, God had blessed us and we were FINALLY going to have a baby!!!! On August 16, 2012 our dreams came true and our little miracle baby was born!

We just celebrated our first Christmas with our baby girl Madison and we are still pinching ourselves! We are so grateful to God for leading us to Dr. Silber and for this beautiful, healthy baby girl! We are now planning our next trip to give Madison a brother or sister! There are no words to tell you just how thankful we are for all of you and what you mean to our family!