Deciding to go the IVF route was undoubtedly the best way to go at this point. Paying for it was a whole other thing. Unfortunately, it isn't covered by most insurance policies (if yours covers it, consider yourself lucky!), and I haven't found a doctor or clinic yet who will do in with an in-house payment plan. We didn't qualify for medical financing and we didn't have enough available credit on our credit cards to cover it. So where did that leave us?

I considered all the things I could sell. However, even if I were to sell everything I owned including my car, I'm not sure it would add up to $16,000 it costs to get IVF. With our current income, it would literally take two or three years minimum to save up $16,000 and I didn't want to wait that long. I'd been trying for a baby for so long anyway. It was time to get serious about it.

While pondering my options, an idea came to me. I've donated money to a few projects on crowdfunding sites before. Why not try that for fertility funding? Most of my friends and family knew how much having a baby meant to me. Surely they would each donate something, and together it would add up to what I needed to do IVF.

I checked out a few of the better known crowdsourcing sites and chose one. Then, I read through their tips on creating a successful campaign and put them into action by creating a page for donations. I saw a few other people on there doing the same thing, so I was encouraged. My husband was mortified. He said we may as well panhandle out on the street. But I was determined to become a mother any way I could, and against his protestations, I activated the page and started promoting it.

I got my first donation almost immediately. More started coming in, and I was starting to get excited, while my husband put a bag over his head to hide. A few days later, I discovered an exciting bit of information that changed everything and slashed my target fundraising goal by three-quarters. Thanks to something very cool being done by a local fertility clinic, my IVF funding was more in reach than ever. I was going to do this!

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