Dollar Baby Project

Hi. We’re Juan & Arienne Martinez.

We have always talked about wanting a big family; unfortunately, that hasn’t come easy. After 13 years together and 6 years of failed fertility treatments with medical complications; we are hoping to move forward in our journey via surrogate to carry our embryo.

Surrogacy is very expensive and is not covered by insurance. We have depleted our savings getting to this point with, still, no baby. We are asking for help to hopefully, finally, start our family. We pray your generosity will be blessed back to you tenfold.

Luke 6:38

Our long journey to surrogacy...

2010 - Juan and Arienne officially start dating.

2016 - Yay! Juan proposed, let the wedding planning begin!

2017 - We closed on our first home on July 6th and got married on July 7th. In August, Arienne goes to see a local OBGYN for fertility advice.

2018 - Completed 6 failed cycles of Clomid and received PCOS diagnosis.

2019 - Referred to fertility specialist in Cedar Rapids, IA. Completed 9 more cycles of failed Clomid. Next step IUI at the beginning of the year when insurance starts over.

2020 - Hysterosalpingogram (HSG) test to see if fallopian tubes are blocked - they were not! Good news and bad news... in the heighted state of COVID-19, all ‘new’ fertilities treatments were being ceased. We waited, and waited...and waited...

2021 - After months of trying to get back into the Cedar Rapids clinic with no luck, we switched to University of Iowa. They were booked out for months for new patients, but we knew all we could do was wait.

Jan. 2022 - Our first IVF consultation and started cycles of Provera. After 9 months of tests and random appointments trying to regular my cycle, we were cleared to start our first round of IVF in September.

9/2/22 - First day of injections! Ultrasounds every 2-3 days in Iowa City.

9/14/22 - Egg retrieval day! We got 28 eggs!!! (My birthday & lucky number)

9/16/22 - ER visit for dehydration, severe abdominal pain, and shortness of breath. CT revealed right heart strain and bilateral pulmonary embolisms. Ambulanced to Iowa City after being diagnosed with Severe OHSS.

9/17/22 - Admitted to the MICU for critical care monitoring, receiving IV Heparin to treat blood clots in my lungs, fully on oxygen, and received 3 blood transfusions. Became jaundice and had a liver infection and internal bleeding from the egg retrieval procedure.

9/23/22 - Finally discharged home after being off oxygen for 2 days and blood tests starting to improve. Start blood thinners twice a day for 6 months straight! (Also being terrified the whole time I would trip/get in a car wreck/have some kind of accident and bleed to death)

9/26/22 - Received genetic results from the 8 viable embryos that made it to testing! Unfortunately, 2 of the 8 were discarded due to missing specific chromosomes not compatible with life. (We still have 6 in the freezer!)

March 2023 - Taken off blood thinners and encouraged to think about surrogacy because me carrying could be too risky for blood clots. Went back and forth for months being so scared and traumatized from OHSS that I wanted to give up...but we didn’t. We started Ivory Flamingo instead because I was leaning towards surrogacy for my own health.

April 2023 - Received a second opinion that doctors could make a transfer ‘as safe as possible’, I will never forget those words - they were NOT comforting. But I wanted to try because the alternative was over $70,000 and after a few weeks, had only raised a few hundred dollars.

7/7/23 - Happy anniversary to us! We spent it in the hospital for a minor procedure to remove a polyp to prepare my uterus for a transfer - we didn’t tell our friends or family; we wanted it to feel ‘normal’ and be a surprise.

7/10/23 - Received the call from IVF team that I was cleared for transfer! Transfer date schedule for September 13 or 14 depending on my cycle (a year ago exactly from my egg retrieval, I thought it was a sign from God.)

7/12/23 - Received a call from Pathology that my biopsy came back atypical... “It’s not cancer, but these are precancerous cells we need to take care of. We need to cancel your transfer. We’re sorry you’re hitting another bump in the road.” Referred to Gynecologic Oncology for further testing. Determined that we’re looking at a 1-2 year timeline for a full hysterectomy and in the meantime, implanting an IUD to manage the atypical cells.

Shortly after this last biopsy, we wanted to focus on something we could control. Which led us back to fundraising for surrogacy to bring our baby into this world. We can’t give up on our 6 embryos, it’s not an option.

Every Dollar Counts!

Our next steps are to open an escrow account and deposit $70,000 before the surrogacy agency will proceed with contracting and matching. We are working with Heartland Surrogacy out of Des Moines, Iowa.

We want nothing more than to start our family and become parents. We hope the $1 Baby Project reaches who it needs to so we can finally bring our embryos into this world.

One person, one dollar, one prayer at a time...

Your support means the world to us. We can’t wait for you to meet Baby Martinez... someday, some way...

We sell shirts too! Shop & support: ivoryflamingo.com