Lindsay & Leke

In November 2022, the unimaginable happened to our family. Our beautiful daughter, our youngest child at the time, Lola, passed away at age six suddenly from a medical emergency. Lola was the brightest light. She lived life to the fullest – full of joy, energy, love, fun, and noise. Without her, our family was crushed. Our home was full of sadness, shock, and confusion.

While grieving, my husband and I decided we wanted to try to have another baby. We had the energy, love, and time to give to another child and our family and home needed more noise, more joy, more laughter and smiles. We felt that our son needed a living sibling. We knew that there was absolutely no replacing Lola, as she was truly the most incredible child – smart, friendly, athletic, funny, loving, and more – but we wanted to seek joy even in our family’s sadness.

Finding hope after loss

Given our ages, we immediately sought help from Shady Grove Fertility. Our first meeting with Dr. Malik was during our darkest period of grief. She was so kind, patient, and understanding with us. She was honest and forthcoming about statistics and options. It was a long journey of early morning appointments to K Street, Arlington, and Fairfax, so many shots, procedures, and more. While our fertility journey was challenging, it does not compare to the pain of child loss; in fact, it was a welcome distraction. It gave us something to focus on and fill our time. After one full year of treatments, I was pregnant in April 2024. Our son surprised us a bit early on Christmas morning. He was healthy and ready for the world.

Joy and love

I share our story to give others hope – those who are older, those who are grieving, those who have experienced traumatic loss. While we miss our daughter every single day and still feel the pain and sadness of grief, we also have a new life to celebrate in our family and he has brought immense joy to us, our family, and friends. And, he will always know about his big sister, Lola, whose life inspired us to seek more joy and love, always. We are thankful to Shady Grove Fertility for helping us.