Shelton & Brandi

Hello! We're Brandi & Shelton Koskie. Since 2006 we’ve been one of the many couples on the In Vitro Fertilization journey. We were the first IVF fundraiser blog, and thanks to the generous help of many, in we had our first successful IVF attempt. Nine months later, we had a beautiful girl, Paisley. You’re invited to follow along on our journey from infertility to parenthood.  Learn more

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Did you know one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer? I had no idea that the stats were that high.

I’m very fortunate that this is not a disease that runs in my family (we just have bad ovaries and diabetes!). Last summer my grandfather’s wife was diagnosed, underwent a double mastectomy, chemo, shaved her gorgeous blonde hair, got new boobs and new nipples and is alive and kickin’ today and up to her old rowdy self. It was the first time I’d ever personally known someone with breast cancer and I watched with admiration her strength, courage, and unwillingness to let this disease beat her. And it didn’t. Watching her survive breast cancer is something I will carry with me the rest of my life, and the lessons of her strength I will employ in times of my greatest need.

You can help support Breast Cancer Awareness month, and continue helping National Breast Cancer Foundation in their courageous fight against this disease, by publishing this button on your site.


breast cancer donation

DietsInReview.com will donate $5 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for every blog that publishes the ”This Blog Cares“ button during October; they’ll also donate $1 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for every new newsletter sign-up they receive in October.

Help DietsInReview.com help National Breast Cancer Foundation- and help millions of women, men and families continue to be strong, courageous survivors.

Written by Brandi and posted under Healthy Lifestyle

American Adoption Statistics

I thought this was a really interesting article– and one that really took me by surprise.

The CDC looked at recent adoption figures and says that men are two times as likely to adopt than women. The report says 2.3% of men and 1.1% of women in America have adopted. My initial thought was- men often marry women with children and adopt them as their own. And I love being right… that’s what the article says! Another trend that appears to be rising is adoption by same-sex couples. Since gay women have the option to carry their own children, gay men have no other choice but to adopt if they want a family.

Another statistic this article points out is that black Americans are more likely to adopt than white. The broad majority of both black and white adopters would accept a child of another race.

Here’s a snippet from the article about the “ideal” child women would like to adopt:
“The CDC survey asked women seeking to adopt what they wanted in a child. The preferred child is younger than 2 years old, free of disabilities, and is an only child. Women would prefer to adopt a girl rather than a boy.” That said, 90% would accept a child with minor disabilities, 79% would accept a child aged 2-5, 75% would accept siblings. More than 60% of women would not take a child over the age of 13, nor would they take a child with severe disabilities.

These are interesting facts. More so to me as the adoption conversation is one that has occurred more and more frequently. We agree that we want to be parents, so if we find our way to our baby through adoption or IVF, we’ll be parents either way. Adoption would possibly satisfy our urge to be parents much more quickly. Given the government rebates and employer reimbursement- the cost to us would be minimal. There’s still a lot of soul-searching to be done… it’s something we’ve always talked about doing even before the infertility. I think we’re set on a course now for actionable decisions though.

Written by Brandi and posted under IVF and Infertility News

One More Baby

It is raining babies around here! Our second niece was born recently, miss Emilee Delee. A very healthy 6 pounds, 8 ounces. She is beautiful, and looks just like her mama. We won’t get to meet her until next week and we’re very anxious to do so.

Shelton and I had a realization the other night, of the four “cousins” on the Koskie side of the family, we’re the only ones without kids. Sometimes it really sucks- a lot of conversations we can’t be a part of and just wanting to have “that” like they do. At the same time, we’re the only ones who get to sleep in on weekend mornings! I will say that I love being an aunt, it is so much fun. I am so in love with my nephew and nieces. I really enjoy watching Shelton interact with them. He’s so patient and a lot of fun to play with. Our nephew just climbs all over him and hangs from all his limbs like Shelton were a jungle-gym. And watching him hold our new month-old niece…. melt. my. heart.

We’ll get our turn. Because those kids definitely need more cousins to play with!

Written by Shelton and posted under Koskie Life

Two New Babies

I love celebrating new babies. We seem to do that a lot lately between family and friends squeezing out babies like they’re worth a tax deduction.

Oh yeah, they are!!

Some very, very dear friends of ours were laboring on Labor Day and delivered twins!! The Swarts are now a family of five, thanks to boy/girl twins Riley and Hailey. They are teeny tiny, both just under six pounds. The best news, is that they are HEALTHY!! For having twins, it was a fairly uneventful pregnancy and I couldn’t ask for more if I’d carried them myself.

We met The Swarts through my cousin, on one of our many infamous camping trips. While it was blazing hot outside that day, the A/C in the car on the way to the lake was frigid, so I put on my little pink cardigan. We’d also brought our little Shih-Tzu, Tibet. So when we arrived at camp, I climbed out of the car in a cardigan with my frou-frou dog. Mikayla couldn’t believe I was there to camp. But I proved I’m one hell of a camper, and so is my little dog! It’s a cherished friendship we’ve enjoyed ever since.

Most infertile couples don’t want to hear about some successful couple just looking at each other and getting pregnant, much less with twins. (For the record, infertile couples think that’s how the “rest” of you have babies…. you just sit in the same room and stare at one another!) Personally, I love celebrating it. I love that one more couple didn’t have to experience this. That their blessing, and in this case blessings, came without the trials and struggles that we face. More than anything, it gives me more hope.

I haven’t gotten to see these little cuties yet, but you bettah-bulieeeve I will snuggle them simultaneously the first chance I get.

In other news…. I get to meet my new niece tomorrow night. She’s 3 weeks old now and I’m just going to spend 4 whole days soaking up her newness.

Written by Brandi and posted under Koskie Life

Infertility Blogs and News

I found a great site today that features more than 100 blogs, Web sites and news sources all related to infertility.

I’m sharing this with you for a few reasons:
1. That’s what I do.

2. I think it’s a really valuable resource that you should know about.

3. They told me if I told my readers about them, that it would be “particularly persuasive” for them to add Baby Or Bust.

So, the site is called Alltop (meaning “All the Top News”), and they simulate this same feed for dozens of topics like the aforementioned Infertility, and Adoption.

Another resource that I recently found is called Wise About Health, and they also have a dedicated space for featuring sites related to Pregnancy and Infertility.

Written by Brandi and posted under IVF and Infertility News and IVF Resources

It’s a Niece!

About 18 hours ago we welcomed our new niece into this world. Her name is Tilton, and long before her birth we’ve been calling her Tillie. She’s a perfect and healthy 7 pound, 7 ounce, 20” bundle of girly joy. She is what we call “the golden child.” The first girl in a family of all boys. I can tell already that she’s got daddy tightly wound around her teeny tiny finger.

Her parents just “had” to move to the other side of the country so we were not able to be there. We are nonetheless elated with the news and anxiously waiting the first pictures.

We could not be happier and send congrats to them!

Written by Brandi and posted under Koskie Life