I am so excited I can hardly stand it. After a lovely break a new season of U.T.E.R.U.S. is upon us. For those of you unfamiliar with this amazing internet movement I will give you a little background. This past February I was seriously in a bad, bad place. I was in the midst of the unwinding of the unpregnancy, feeling like the undoubling betas were my fault, and certain that it would be years before I would be able to try again. I knew I needed to take a break from blogging to convalesce, but I was very uncertain if I would ever come back to our community.
Then I got an e-mail from Mel. “How much do you need?” I explained how much I needed and that it would take me a good long time to raise the money on my own. Her response? Who says you have to do it on your own? And before I could even blink again I was lifted up by the love and energy of U.T.E.R.U.S. (Union To Expedite Relief Until Self-Fulfillment).
(Crazy thing that I just realized as I was adding in the above link? Help began pouring in for me in early April. Snork’s estimated time of arrival? Early April. What a beautiful loop!)
People I had never interacted with before jumped into my world, feet first, and got to work setting up auctions and helping direct donations come in. My life was absolutely changed by the swirl and glorious energy of support. I felt like I could never give up because so, so many people were now literally invested in my dream.
And in before I knew it I was able to try again. And because of the kindness and generosity of so many I now know a happiness that I never thought I would.
Now the cycle begins again and two more families need our help. These families might be unfamiliar to you now, but as we work together to help them out you will see just how much they need us.
The first family is Vee & Max. The goal is to raise money to help them with travel to see their family in France in Italy. We are looking not only for help financially, but any help that you might be able to give in the way of travel points or hotel hook ups. This is a family that has been through hell and back to try and start their family. And now they are dealing with the ultimate setback- cancer. This isn’t a case of raising money to help someone start a family, but raising money to help them be with the family that is so far away.
The second family we are helping this season is Mary’s family. Now Mary doesn’t have a blog, but she is an active member of our community through comment leaving. She has been trying for a family for nine years and has just gone through some truly awful hell. Here is her latest comment from Mel’s lushary:
After 8 weeks the baby’s heartbeat stopped and I had a D&C. Heartbreaking, but I was trying to find the positive (the donor embryo “took” but because of a fluke we lost it). But then the other shoe dropped. A week and a half after D&C I had sharp abdominal pains. I finally went to the doctor and it turns out I had an ectopic pg (now at over 10 weeks) and the tube ruptured and needed to be removed. Emergency surgery after 30 hours of internal bleeding. The doctor told me the next day I almost died. Turns out there is a 1 in 10,000 chance of having a uterine and an ectopic at the same time. We are always on the wrong side of statistics. I’m back to work this week teaching. Exhausted and sore. I won’t let myself deal with (or feel) the sadness because I’m afraid if I start crying I won’t stop. When will it end?
And the really awful part- the cost of the emergency surgery. Thankfully her insurance was able to cover a large portion of it, but she is responsible for coming up with $1800. We would like to help her cover this medical bill so that it isn’t something that she has to deal with on her own.
SO get your thinking hats on! It is time to come together for the greater good of our community. Mel has the call to arms post up at her blog and it has loads more information, including the sign up links for the on-line donations. The total amount that we want to raise is $3000. We have done it before and I know we can do it again!
