What drives us isn't a gap in the market. It's the many stories behind it.

Children were never a big issue for my husband and me, because we knew that we definitely wanted them. That was a given. It was also clear that we wanted them at a later point. Who would have thought that our plans would change so suddenly and unexpectedly.

A few years before I met my husband, I had a severe case of appendicitis. So severe that my entire abdomen was inflamed. I did have to spend a few days in hospital, but the whole thing was quickly forgotten afterwards. Until I began to feel the after-effects: cysts, stuck-together fallopian tubes that filled with fluid and caused me unimaginable pain, and one laparoscopy after another. I was operated on a full seven times, until my doctor finally decided that at least the left fallopian tube had to come out. "Oh well!" I thought, "I still have the right fallopian tube. It'll be fine." Oh, how wrong I was….

I will never forget the sad look on the surgeon's face after the operation. She sat down on the bed and told me that I would never be able to get pregnant naturally. She had checked the right fallopian tube several times. It would not be able to transport an egg to the uterus without problems.

At first I was in shock! It took me a few hours to understand what I had just been told. Just in time to break down in front of my husband when he picked me up from the outpatient clinic. I won't be able to have children. Not like others, like normal couples.

Without thinking long, my husband said: "Then let's just get started now! We'll manage it!!" What a crazy guy. If only he had known back then what an undertaking this would become….

There it was: my first encounter with hope. "Yes, if he wants to see this through with me, then we'll surely manage it!" I thought. At that point I didn't know how often I would lose sight of that good hope on the way to our goal and lose my faith in it, how often I would curse it and declare it dead. But above all, how often it would catch me, comfort me, lift me up and motivate me, despite all my doubts. How essential hope would ultimately be for the success of our undertaking. In the end, it was a loyal companion to me. Just like my husband!

We had our first appointment at the fertility center in 2014. I was more excited than ever before. It felt like an adventure and was tied to so many positive thoughts. When the very first attempt was successful right away, I could hardly believe my luck. The fall was all the deeper when it ended in a miscarriage.

And so followed four and a half years full of excitement, happiness, disappointment, grief, fear, despair, and again and again hope. I don't want to bore you with the details, because we racked up a grand total of 5 ICSI attempts and 11 cryo treatments, until we met a specialist abroad who examined me thoroughly once more.

"Your right fallopian tube is the problem. It is calcified and fills with fluid, which prevents the eggs from implanting. If we take it out, it will work on the very first try." A very bold claim, I thought, but he would turn out to be right. My anger and disappointment at the doctor who had treated me up to that point had risen beyond measure. How could he have overlooked this?? I had, after all, raised the subject of my right fallopian tube with him two years earlier…. I had the right fallopian tube removed as well, we looked for a new fertility clinic and found exactly the right place: Kinderwunsch Valentinshof in Hamburg.

Of all the fertility attempts, only the first had "worked." I was already sure that we would have to adopt if we wanted children. But then we met our new doctor, Dr. Dawson, and hope flared up in us like a hot, untameable fire. She was the one!! She would help us! On the very first attempt, unlike at the old clinic, I received a call from her personally: "You're pregnant!" I couldn't believe it. After all these years…

Sadly, this pregnancy too ended in a miscarriage, but I couldn't be sad, because, as I mentioned, hope was burning so brightly that it lit up my everyday life. It works! My body works!! It will surely work again, and then it will stick…

Yes, it worked again right on the second try. And yes, it stuck. My son is lying on his tummy right now, annoyed that he can't move forward. This time too, Dr. Dawson called me personally and gave me the result. When I was due to come in for the first ultrasound, I ran into the biologist, Dr. Schepers, on my way to work. From far off he called out to me: "Mrs. Latus, it woooorked!!!" He took me in his arms and hugged me sooo tightly. Pure joy! That's when I knew we had done everything right. We had found exactly the right clinic with exactly the right doctors.

Yesterday we were back there. We wanted to show our doctors what they work for. Neo was welcomed with such joy and so much love… No one, except these people and others who have been through it, really knows what we went through to reach this point in our lives, and you could see that in them. They truly rejoiced with us!

This is where you come in. I want to give you a piece of the hope that gave us so much strength. In the end, we had 7 ICSIs and 14 cryos before we reached our goal. If a seemingly hopeless case like ours can make it, then you most certainly can too. Gather every spark of strength within you and let a fire blaze up, because I don't want to lie to you: you need a wildfire of strength and an inferno of hope to set out on this journey and arrive safely! I want to accompany and help you. This is my way of showing how grateful I am that two more little people now belong to my small family.