Lessons Learned While Trying to Have a Baby: Miracles and Insurance

{Miracles happen}

“…know thou, my [daughter], that all these things … shall be for thy good (D&C 122:7).”

In the midst of struggling to have a child there were other events taking place in our lives. At the time these unrelated experiences seemed far removed from our battle with infertility. It wasn’t until we could look back and see the whole picture that we were able to realize all the Lord had done for us.

I graduated in May of 2009. The economy had just hit rock bottom and the recession was in full swing. I was hard-pressed to find a job and was unemployed for several months. After multiple failed job applications and interviews I received a call from my visiting teaching partner. Through her work she knew of a woman who managed a contract employment service. She gave me this woman’s information and told me to call her, saying she had told the woman about me and my need for a job.

I hesitated, desiring a full-time position rather than a temporary job but our desperate situation forced me to make the call. I was given an interview at the contract employment firm and a subsequent interview was set up with a company that was currently hiring contract workers. I interviewed at this company and received a temporary position with them. It wasn’t until weeks later that I realized the company I now worked for was United Guaranty, the mortgage insurance subsidiary of AIG. David and I laughed because I had been unable to find a job due to the recession but the only reason I finally did find a job was because of the recession and AIG’s need for additional workers to handle all the incoming home foreclosures.

After working at United Guaranty as a temp worker for about nine months I was offered a full-time position with benefits. I was astonished. I knew that the department I worked in, which was almost completely staffed by temp workers, had not hired anyone to a full-time position for four years. I felt extremely lucky to have been in the right place at the right time. However, looking back I know that the Lord had worked this all out long ago for my benefit. My receiving this job had nothing to do with the job itself. It was a temporal means to a spiritual end and now reaffirms to me the scripture, “Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual… (D&C 29:34).”

The Lord’s plan—His miracles—didn’t end there.

After being hired on in May of 2010, I attended a meeting going over my benefits as a new full-time employee of AIG. Of course, working for one of the largest insurance companies in the world has some perks…I just didn’t know they would be my miracle. As I flipped through the packet of benefits I realized I had just been given complete infertility insurance that would cover any procedure up to any amount. It covered doctor’s visits, prescriptions, infertility testing, even in vitro fertilization. In addition, my company also offered adoption insurance. If fertility treatments didn’t work David and I would have the option of adopting and the cost would be completely covered.

I may never understand how truly blessed we are, but I do know that there are so many couples who have not received this particular blessing that the Lord bestowed upon David and I. I know there are those who cannot afford treatments or adoption who must come to the realization that they may never have the possibility of having a child. I know there are those who scrimp and save for years to be able to afford something we were freely given. It is because of those who do not have this blessing that I am able to comprehend our blessings more fully and cannot help but feel so grateful and extremely unworthy for the Lord’s goodness.

Without these benefits we never would have been able to afford infertility treatments. For those who don’t know how expensive these treatments are, let me give you a breakdown of the monetary cost.

NOTE: I wasn’t able to find a good website that outlined all various costs of infertility treatments so the numbers below are what our particular treatments cost. Of course, cost will vary by couple and treatment. Because we only did two cycles of clomid before moving directly to IVF I feel our costs are lower than the majority of other couples who do multiple clomid cycles and IUI before moving to IVF.

$20,569.73 Consults, doctor’s appointments, blood tests, other tests, two clomid cycles


$600 Prescriptions for two clomid cycles and any other prescriptions outside of IVF


$14,200 IVF


$3,000 IVF Medications


$800 Anesthesiologist and anesthetic for IVF surgery


Total:


$39,169.73

Because of the insurance the Lord had provided for us, of the nearly $40,000 our infertility treatments cost David and I spent out-of-pocket only around $2000.

If you ask me if I believe in miracles I would give you a resounding “YES!” The Lord created a worldwide economic recession so that I could have a baby!