Emily and Stephen's Hope: Breaking a Cycle, Building a Family
A Brandon, Florida couple is pursuing IVF with genetic testing to give their future child a healthy start.
Emily has carried the same dream since she was a little girl: to become a mother, and to give a child a safe, loving, and secure upbringing. Now she and her husband, Stephen, are taking what they call the biggest step of their lives. They are preparing to welcome a baby into their hearts and home, and they are asking their community for help getting there.
A family history they want to rewrite
Emily carries the gene for Marfan syndrome, a genetic connective tissue disorder that runs in her family. She has been fortunate to experience only mild symptoms herself. Her loved ones have not been as lucky. She has watched family members endure severe heart surgeries, vision loss, pulmonary issues, and painful skeletal deformities. Some of them did not survive those complications.
There is a 50% chance Emily would pass Marfan syndrome to her child. After everything she has witnessed, she is clear about where she stands: she refuses to knowingly pass this condition down to her son or daughter.
Modern medicine offers a path forward. IVF paired with PGT-M genetic testing allows Emily and Stephen to screen embryos before implantation, so their future baby can begin life free from Marfan syndrome. The couple has already completed a consultation with The Reproductive Medicine Group in Brandon, Florida, and they are ready to move forward.
The obstacle is cost, and time
Emily has saved everything she can. But IVF, genetic testing, and the required medications add up quickly, and at 40, time is a factor she cannot negotiate with. Saving the rest on their own would take years they simply do not have.
This is not unfamiliar territory for her. Emily survived extreme trauma earlier in her life and rebuilt herself from the ground up. She earned her degree and now works as a case manager, advocating for other people in hard moments. She has fought to reclaim her safety, her dignity, and her future. Now she and Stephen are fighting together for their future child's health.
Why community support matters here
Building a family is one of the most ordinary hopes a person can have, and one of the most expensive to pursue when biology puts an obstacle in the way. Fertility treatment is rarely covered in full, and the costs tend to arrive all at once rather than on a schedule a family can plan around. That is why so many people turn to the people around them. A fundraiser is not a last resort so much as a way of letting a community show up.
Emily and Stephen have been specific about where support goes: their IVF treatment cycle, PGT-M genetic testing, and essential fertility medications and monitoring.
How you can help
If their story moves you, read it in their own words and give what you can. Contributions of any size add up, and sharing their fundraiser with someone who might care costs nothing at all. Emily and Stephen have also said that keeping them in your thoughts and prayers matters to them.
Every bit moves this family closer to the healthy start they want so badly to give their child.
From the publisher
You don't have to carry the cost alone.
Gift of Parenthood awards a $20,000 Family Fund grant each cycle and helps families fundraise for IVF, surrogacy, and adoption. If this is your journey, there's a place to start.
