Hi! We’re Jake and Keyawna Hilsabeck! We met in 2018 while we were working at Grand Street Cafe. Jake was finishing up college courses and I was working part-time while teaching. We immediately hit it off and knew we were ready to tackle this life together. Jake proposed in October of 2020 and we got married on March 26th, 2022. Our Journey: Since before we even got engaged, we’ve talked about our future family. We’ve both known that we wanted to be parents, but that journey has been anything but easy for us. This road has been incredibly emotional and financially challenging. Between doctors visits, testing, medications, procedures, and the toll of the unknown, we’ve carried so much — but we’ve never let go of the dream of starting our family and holding a baby in our arms. After 3 long years of trying to grow our family, including multiple heartbreaking failed IUI treatments, we are starting IVF, the next (and most hopeful) step in our journey to becoming parents. We just bought our first home, a place we hope to fill with laughter, love, and the pitter-patter of little feet. But IVF is expensive, and we can’t do it alone — so we’re asking for help in a special way. We’ve thankfully started financially preparing for this, but there are upfront costs that we weren’t anticipating coming this quickly as well as additional testing and egg freezing that isn’t covered by insurance. How You Can Help: We’re starting a puzzle fundraiser called “It Takes a Village.” We have purchased a 520 piece puzzle and are ‘selling’ each puzzle piece for $10. You can purchase as many pieces as you’d like, and we’ll add your initials to the back of each puzzle piece. When it’s complete, the puzzle will hang in Baby Hilsabeck’s nursery — a daily reminder that our child was brought into this world by a community of love and support. Thank you for walking with us through this chapter. Your support means more than we can ever say.