I first saw this story on Bethenny and knew I had to share. It's incredible!
Infertility Struggles Brings Sisters Together
By: Ellie Merritt (edited, full story here)
Millions of women across the country face the same heartbreak of infertility. They yearn for a baby and struggle to get pregnant.
It's a pain 33-year old Annie Johnston knows well.
"I think every girl that wants to have a family just assumes that she's going to get pregnant…it was just heartbreaking for us and we just always had bad news to share," said Johnston who struggled with infertility for five years and had turned to reproductive specialists for help.
... Johnston and her husband Joby tried fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization twice. Still, after years of trying, the loving, young couple was childless. Annie hadn't even had one positive pregnancy test in all the years she had been trying to conceive.
... Annie didn't have the baby she had hoped for, but she did have an older sister to turn to who had watched Annie struggle through infertility.
... Chrissy, already having two children of her own, made a loving, self-less offer to her sister.
"I just want you to know that I'd be more than happy to carry if that would help you to have a family," said Chrissy. She was offering to be a gestational carrier and running out of options, Annie took her up on that offer.
... Doctors implanted embryos in Chrissy, and since Annie was on the same cycle, they decided to implant embryos in her too, just to give it one more try.
... Four embryos, two sisters -- hoping for just one baby. Then, they got the call from the doctor.
"She started off by saying she had double great news and we just gasped," Annie said.
Both the women were pregnant.
At the first ultrasound for both women, Annie and Chrissy heard heartbeats of hope. First, there was one heartbeat. Then another. And another. And another.
Four heartbeats -- four babies -- in all...
