Jennifer Finn had been trying to get pregnant for six months when she went to the doctor to get some tests run. Unfortunately, Jennifer found out that she had “diminished ovarian reserve, or low egg count.”
Following the appointment, Jennifer tried many different things in the hopes of getting pregnant, including fertility treatments and met with different fertility doctors in the hopes of finding a solution.
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Jennifer Finn on Fertility Struggles: “You Name It, I Tried It”
“I tried acupuncture, Qigong, Chinese herbal tea, Mayan abdominal massage, meditation, reiki, and changed my diet many times — eliminated coffee and alcohol — and tried supplements like Maca, prenatal vitamins, and royal jelly,” she told PopSugar. “You name it, I tried it.”
The toll of going to so many different appointments was compounded by the fact that she didn’t feel like she could discuss her fertility issues with her co-workers.
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“I didn’t feel like I could share my infertility with coworkers because I felt so much shame and fear and it seemed like I was the only one going through it,” she said. “But my job was the only thing that seemed to be able to take my mind off my empty ovaries, so I focused on work and neglected everything else in my personal life.”
Jennifer and her husband tried to get pregnant for a year through both medicated and unmedicated IUIs. After those attempts failed, they were faced with the decision to try IVF or not, but the procedure wasn’t covered by insurance and Jennifer’s doctors weren’t confident it would work.
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She Learned What She Actually Wanted Was to Be a Mom, Not Just Get Pregnant
Instead, she and her husband shifted gears and focused on adoption. “I realized that what I had been longing for was to become a mom, not necessarily to become pregnant,” she said.
The couple started the adoption process in August 2018, working with an adoption agency. The couple’s profile began being sent out to potential birth mothers in October 2018.
They waited seven months and then were connected with a woman who agreed to let them adopt her child. The couple spent some time getting to know the birth mom before the child was due.
On August 28, 2019, Jennifer and her husband welcomed their son.
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Jennifer Finn Runs the Inspiring ‘A Mama in Progress’ Instagram Account, Which Documents Her New Life as a Mom
“I got to cut the umbilical cord, and when the doctors laid him on my chest, he immediately looked up, directly at me, with his big blue eyes,” Jennifer said. “He did the same thing when I put him on my husband’s chest. We have loved him deeply, from the bottom of our hearts, since the first moment he laid his eyes on us, and it would make no difference if I birthed him myself.”
With a now three-month-old, Jennifer has launched the Instagram account A Mama in Progress share her personal motherhood journey.
“I have been lucky to see the blessing of adoption throughout my life, in my own family and with several of my close friends who were adopted themselves or are adoptive parents,” she said. “I have never had any doubts that the love between parents and children does not have to be biological to be deep, real, and unconditional. But I know there are people who have never been witness to the powerful gift of adoption. I hope I can be one more person to offer a positive, miraculous story to hopefully help take a bit of the fear away. I want to share my story, to help other women going through infertility feel less alone, and to help encourage others who may be considering adoption.”