Z Baby Quest

This is a very difficult request to write. I’ve often sat daydreaming about what to say in a letter or how to approach this without sounding like a desperate woman you’d see on Lifetime Television. But this letter is not about us. It’s about a child we hope to have someday……we are Carrie and Dan Zampich, and since March 28, 2009, we have been trying to have a child. People always have a vision of what their path would look like once they decided to have children. What so many people discover, as Dan and I have, is more times than not, the path to parenthood doesn’t go as you envisioned. Our journey has been difficult and heartbreaking. We’ve exhausted all financial means to undergo over 10 assisted reproduction procedures and we still do not have a child. On November 12, 2014 after our last treatment was unsuccessful, we were told it would be best to give up our desire to have a biological child. Since then, we’ve been crying, dreaming, paying our debts, saving our money, crying some more and wondering if we ever would become parents. Love, family, friends, hard work and a good sense of humor have characterized our lives. There was never a doubt that we wanted to have our own family. So each time the universe threw us a curveball, we tried our best to hit it out of the park. And with each failure to do so, we created a new game plan slightly different than we’d done before. So what do we do now? We have two options. First, is a program called the National Embryo Adoption Center (NEDC). When couples go through fertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilization, there are usually an excess of embryos that are frozen and stored for later use. When the genetic parents decide that their family is complete and embryos are still available, they have three options: donating them to a couple who is unable to conceive, destroying them for research purposes, or thawing them and letting them die. The NEDC allows the genetic parents to give their embryos a chance for life and provides you with an opportunity to have children. The other option is domestic adoption. Adoption is desirable because you are guaranteed to get a child at the end of the process. There are positives and negatives to both kinds of adoptions and we will be weighing these along with costs. These options are our hope, but they are not free. We have used all our savings and retirement, and have years of making payments on the infertility loans we incurred over the last six years. We have been inspired by our friends to start a silent auction. This is where we need your help. We have lots of great items already such as overnight babysitting from me, graphic design from Dan, airline miles, nutrition services and delicious chocolates. However to get close to our financial goal to start either adoption process, we need more items and of course bidders! If you or a friend/family have a skill or product and are willing to “auction” it please let us know! We would be so grateful for your donation and participation. So please forward this to whomever you wish! We will be setting up a page on Facebook where users can “bid” on items in the comments section once a photo of the item is posted. Items will be posted on a rolling basis with a few open for bids at the same time. We will set a start and end date and you will be notified when you “win” the item. We will handle all the logistics and make it as easy as possible for you to participate. I will be sending you a “like this page” on Facebook shortly. Just email me at carrie.zampich@gmail.com if you have any questions! All proceeds will go toward our adoption fund. We do not take this lightly. We wouldn’t ask if we weren’t so much in need of help. We are ready. We are scared, excited, and nervous but ultimately hoping and praying that this time, we get to hold our baby and become the parents we’ve always dreamed of being. Thank you so much for giving us hope, Carrie and Dan