Teddie and Jorge: Fifteen Years Together, One Hope Ahead

Teddie and Jorge met in high school, where they were best friends long before they were anything else. They started dating after graduation. Fifteen years later, they are still side by side, and still holding onto the same dream: a family of their own.

A long road, told in Teddie's own words

Teddie was 18 when she was diagnosed with endometriosis, a chronic and often severely painful condition that damages the reproductive organs and can make carrying a child difficult or impossible. Several other diagnoses followed, including an autoimmune disorder, and she has been in treatment ever since.

The numbers she shares are hard to read and harder to have lived: eight laparoscopies, three cystectomies, and a partial hysterectomy that removed everything except her ovaries, plus countless other surgeries and treatments for her other conditions. She and Jorge tried treatment after treatment to slow the endometriosis down. It was persistent. Eventually it began threatening the viability of her ovaries.

Cysts and endometriosis are still a problem. As Teddie writes, the next step is likely removing her ovaries entirely, both for her health and for relief from constant pain. That is what makes this moment so urgent. Their window is closing.

Why they are raising funds now

Teddie and Jorge are pursuing IVF cryopreservation now, to save some eggs for a future when they are in a position to build the family they have always dreamed of. In her words, they often struggle to make ends meet, and this is truly their last opportunity to keep that door open.

There is something quietly heroic about that decision. It is not a request for a guarantee. It is a request for a chance, made in the middle of pain, on a timeline they did not choose.

Why the cost of building a family weighs so much

For most families, the treatments that make parenthood possible are not covered, not predictable, and not optional if you want to keep the door open. The bills arrive during the exact season when a person may also be recovering from surgery, managing chronic illness, and missing work. Medicine can extend a window; it cannot always extend a budget.

That is where community comes in. A fundraiser cannot undo years of illness or slow down a closing window. What it can do is take one enormous barrier, cost, and make it something a family does not have to carry alone. Small gifts add up quickly when enough people decide a stranger's hope is worth a few dollars.

How you can help

If Teddie and Jorge's story stays with you, please read it in their own words and give what feels right. Every contribution, of any size, moves them closer. And if giving is not possible right now, sharing their fundraiser costs nothing and can reach the person who is able to help.

Teddie asked for one more thing in her post, simply and without pressure: that sharing their story means more than she can say. That part is available to all of us.