Gift of Levi - The Feit Story

When we first started trying to build our family, we never imagined how long or difficult the journey would be.

It took seven rounds of IVF before we finally welcomed our twins, Kara and Zach, in June 2012. After everything it took to get there, becoming their parents was incredible. We were beyond grateful, but I also knew in my heart that our family wasn’t complete.

When the twins were two, I decided I wanted to try for one more child. I had loved becoming a mother to twins, but I also hoped I might have the chance to experience a singleton pregnancy.

We had no frozen embryos or eggs remaining, which meant there was no picking up where we had left off. I had to start the fertility process all over again from the very beginning.

Going back was much harder than I expected. After seven rounds of IVF, I knew exactly what was ahead of me - the medications, injections, appointments, procedures, waiting, and uncertainty. Starting over felt, in many ways, like reliving some of the most difficult parts of our fertility journey all over again.

At the same time, we needed to find out whether my body could safely handle another pregnancy. We tried treatments and closely monitored my uterus to see whether carrying another baby might be possible. Ultimately, it became clear that my uterus was too scarred to safely carry a pregnancy.

My pregnancy with Kara and Zach had already been medically complicated. I spent an extended period hospitalized during my last trimester and ultimately had an emergency C-section. With that history, and the condition of my uterus, my doctors would not medically clear me to carry another pregnancy. Doing so could put my life at risk.

That was a lot to process. I had started this journey again hoping not only for another child, but also for the chance to carry that child myself. Now I had to let go of what I thought that experience would look like while still deciding how far I was willing to go to grow our family.

And I still wasn't ready to give up.

I went through two more rounds of IVF. After those two cycles, we had only one viable, genetically tested embryo.

One embryo. One chance.

That embryo would become Levi.

Since I couldn't safely carry the pregnancy myself, we began exploring surrogacy. I still remember December 1, 2014. We received an email from our surrogacy agency saying they had a possible surrogate in mind for us. Just a few days later, that weekend, we met Karlena in person for the first time.

Until then, surrogacy had been something we were talking about and hoping would work. Suddenly, we were sitting across from the woman who might actually carry our one embryo—our one chance at having another child. There were still so many unknowns ahead, but this new path to growing our family was becoming real.

On February 18, 2015, our frozen embryo was transferred to Karlena. Looking back through my emails from that time, I found something I wrote that day:

“I have a really great feeling. Something in my ‘gut’ tells me it will work. Karlena and her mother have been really great, too.”

After everything we had been through, I somehow had this feeling that this time was going to be different.

And it was.

That one embryo became Levi.

I will always be incredibly grateful to Karlena. It’s hard to explain what it feels like to trust another person to carry your child, especially when you know this is your one chance. She was carrying the baby I wanted so badly but couldn’t safely carry myself. Karlena gave us an incredible gift. She helped us have Levi and complete our family, and she will always be a very special part of our story.

When I look back now, it is hard not to think of Levi as our little miracle. Nine rounds of IVF, one viable embryo, one transfer - and that embryo became our son.

We were fortunate to have the resources and support that allowed us to keep going through all of those years. But we also understood how easily the financial burden of fertility treatment and surrogacy could become the reason another family had to stop—not because they were ready to give up on having a child, but because continuing was simply out of reach.

That experience stayed with us and ultimately became the inspiration for The Gift of Levi. We wanted to help give other families the opportunity to keep going when finances might otherwise end their journey.

Levi was the missing piece of our family.

The Gift of Levi is our way of helping other families find theirs.

- Emily and Alan Feit