After years of ICI, IUI, miscarriages and an interstate move, the couple welcomed their baby boy.

Jessica and Shannon met in 2014 and married in 2020, their partnership grounded in a shared dream: building a family together. When they started trying to conceive in early 2021, they couldn't have imagined that five years, countless medical appointments, three heartbreaking miscarriages, and one terrifying ectopic pregnancy would stand between them and holding their son.

But in the summer of 2025, they held their baby boy for the first time.

"It's been so rewarding watching him grow and learn," Jessica says. "Every day we really cannot believe it. We joke that we don't know what we ever did without him. It feels like he's always been here."

They (and we) share their story because their journey reveals something about the experience of infertility that doesn't get talked about enough: Getting through IVF is not just about diagnoses or procedures. It can also be about persisting through a collection of complex experiencess—uncertainty, accumulating heartbreak, resilience, and the kind of support that enables people to move forward during tough times.

"Infertility was never in our vocabulary... until it was"

Jessica and Shannon started their family-building journey the way many do. Hopeful, they tried an at-home ICI (intracervical insemination) in their Florida home in early 2021. The procedure is straightforward and has a success rate of 15% to 20% per cycle. They gave this method a few tries, but it didn’t work.

Seeking a new approach, they went to a nearby fertility clinic and began IUI cycles. Jessica became pregnant three times via IUI, but in each case, the pregnancy ended with an early midcarriage. The last miscarriage was due to ectopic pregnancy, which caused swelling in her uterus and fallopian tubes. Jessica eventually had a polyp removed from her uterus and tried more IUI, but it was not successful.

"We wish we'd known how long it would take and how heartbreaking it would be at first," Jessica says. "Infertility was never in our vocabulary... until it was. And then on top of that, the unexplained infertility combined with miscarriage after miscarriage felt so daunting."

After each loss, they had to reset emotionally and physically.

The couple moved from Florida to North Carolina and began IUI at a new clinic. After roughly 10 IUI cycles and the accumulated weight of several years of trying to conceive, they decided to try yet another approach with their team at Reproductive Specialists of the Carolinas.

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The Turning Point: When Support Became Everything

The clinic presented options for IVF, including financing solutions, and Sunfish was among them.

"The team at Sunfish went through everything with us on how they could help, how the process would go, and truly supported us before we even signed up," Jessica recalls. "They were reaching out to see how things were going, following up on questions. It wasn't transactional. It felt like they actually cared."

This care mattered for Jessica and Shannon, after the many years of appointments, cycles of hope and sadness, and dealing with what can seem like endless processes.

Working with Sunfish was different. Between the support and the promise of unlimited embryo transfers from a cycle, the couple felt like they’d have real support and reassurance as they moved forward with IVF.

"After everything we'd been through, the idea that we wouldn't have to choose between trying again and going bankrupt was huge," Shannon says. "It gave us permission to move forward."

That Feeling When the Waiting Ends

They went through IVF in 2024. The cycle produced viable embryos—and the first embryo transfer resulted in pregnancy.

"We were so shocked and elated when the first transfer worked," Jessica says, though of course there was still so much waiting before they knew, for sure, that a baby was coming.

He did come. Baby Soren was born in June 2025. He is, according to his moms, beautiful and happy and the "main character in their little story." He loves his moms fiercely. And every single day, Jessica and Shannon look at him with joy that was five years in the making.

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What They've Learned

Jessica advises those going into IVF to ask any and all questions. “Communication is key. No question is too small to ask, especially for Sunfish,” she says. “They were great at answering any question no matter how silly we thought the question might be.”

Their journey from that hopeful beginning in 2021 to this moment in 2025 was long and hard. Jessica describes it as successful, but not always a success. “Lean on each other, your support system, even when it’s hard,” she says. The community of people—their families, their clinic team, their partners at Sunfish—who believed in them when the path forward wasn't clear is what helped them keep going.

And now they have Soren, who loves being the main character in their little story, and they get to spend every day watching him grow, learning what he loves, being loved by him in return.

That’s a story with both a happy ending, and chapters still being written.

What We Learned from Jessica and Shannon's Story

Their journey reminds us of something fundamental about what Sunfish does: we don't just make IVF more affordable. We remove a significant barrier to moving forward so that people can focus on what matters while on their family-building journey.

When you're navigating infertility, financial uncertainty can be paralyzing. But it doesn't have to be. The right support, at the right time, can mean the difference between giving up and getting to hold your baby.

If you're considering IVF or any fertility treatment and you're worried about cost, you don't have to carry that alone. Your clinic can connect you with solutions, and we're here to help—just like we were for Jessica and Shannon.

Your family is waiting. Let's find a path that works for you.

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