Lauren and Sean

Sean and I met over 20 years ago and are high school sweethearts; we bonded over our love of music and art. We always talked about starting a family - we knew we wanted to be parents and were excited at the idea of getting married and starting our own. We wanted to wait until after we were done with school and established in our careers to ensure that we could provide everything and then some for our children. We thought that once we were ready, we would stop preventing pregnancy and that we would immediately get pregnant. This was not the case for us.

After years of trying, we went through bloodwork and several different tests, and it was determined that we would need assistance to start our family. We were fortunate enough to have met Dr. Feinberg and her team, and after years of struggling with infertility, we were blessed with a sweet baby boy, after undergoing IVF and two transfers. It is a dream of ours to add to our family — to give our son a little brother or sister.

We have recently undergone additional testing and unfortunately found out that to make that happen we would have to find additional means and support. Dr. Feinberg had informed us about the Chicago Coalition for Family Building grants; I had no idea that something like this existed. This has given us hope of making this dream of ours a reality. We are hopeful and extremely grateful to be given the opportunity to apply for and receive this grant. This truly has been a humbling experience and has gotten us closer to adding to our family. We are forever grateful!

Lauren and Sean are recipients of a donated IVF cycle from our Partner Practice, Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago.