Sara and Matt met in 2009 while at a conference in Chattanooga, TN for student alumni associations they were both involved with at their own universities; Sara at Eastern Kentucky University and Matt at the University of Louisville. They started dating the following November and married in March 2016.
They knew they wanted to start a family right away, but knew the path may look differently than others since Matt has the mildest form of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH). They had talked about how they would build a family if Sara was a carrier for the same disease. She had genetic testing done only two days after they were married to rule this out and thankfully, she was not. Had she been, any child they had naturally would be guaranteed to have the potential fatal disease CAH. When Sara was determined to not be a carrier, their hopes were high to conceive and start a family right away.
After over a year of trying to conceive naturally, Sara and Matt began to see their doctors about possible infertility issues. Sara was diagnosed with PCOS because of irregular menstrual cycles. Matt was already on Clomid because of the CAH and Sara started her own rounds of medication in an effort to conceive through IUI. After three rounds were unsuccessful, they decided to take a break. During this time, they felt called to become foster parents while also saving for IVF. While they were going through the approval process with the state, a family member recommended they switch from their fertility clinic to the Institute for a Reproductive Health and apply for the Parental Hope Grant. Receiving this Grant has renewed HOPE, which had slowly started to dim because of the failed fertility treatments and the looming financial burden of IVF.
“We are excited and cannot wait to start the process so we will hopefully be blessed with biological children of their own. We are extremely grateful to the Parental Hope Board of Directors for offering couples in situations like ours, the opportunity to start a family.”
***Update: Sara & Matt welcome Logan Matthew on September 18, 2019***