Jim sat on the side of the bed and stared at the bathroom door. His lips were pursed and his brow furrowed anxiously as he waited.
At the sound of the toilet flushing, he froze in suspense as a wave of anxiety washed over him. Every muscle in his body felt tense as he stared nervously at the door.
Having been through this ritual every month for almost three years now, Jim counted slowly down from twenty and fought the urge to call out to his wife.
19... 18... 17...
Experience had taught him not to dare to hope. Hope made the pain worse.
16... 15... 14...
But he couldn't help it.
13... 12... 11...
Maybe this would be the one, the success, the dream.
10... 9... 8...
A quick daydream flashed through his mind of him and Anna celebrating the good news. Calling friends and family on the phone and telling them the exciting news. He pushed the images from his mind angrily.
7... 6... 5...
This was it. The final round of IVF. This was the end of the road and he was seconds away from finding out. He couldn't stand the wait, not wanting to know but at the same time desperate to know.
4... 3... 2... 1...
Nothing.
Silence rang out from the bathroom like an explosion. Jim waited a few more moments before standing and walking to the bathroom door. He knocked tentatively and waited. There was no reply so he knocked again a bit louder.
The realisation was dawning on him slowly, despair threatening to drown him. If it was good news he would would have heard by now, silence was not a good sign.
He opened the door gently and poked his head around the corner. Anna was sitting on the floor with her head in her hands sobbing quietly.
The sadness hit him like a brick wall stunning him for a second. He forced himself to ignore it. However hard this was for him, it was even worse for her. She was the one that had endured the months of painful and invasive procedures. She was the one that had been told 'The problem is with you' by their doctor. She was the one that felt like she wasn't a real woman.
He walked over and sat down next to her. Then he put his arm around her and pulled her close, and they cried together for a while.
***
Jim and Anna had started trying for a baby almost immediately after getting married. At first it was fun and exciting, they talked about how many children they wanted and what they would call them. Anna laughed at the ridiculous names that Jim came up with, and Jim vetoed all Anna's names because they reminded him of people he had known when he was younger.
The monthly pregnancy test was something they looked forward to as they longed to see a positive result. The first few negative results were easy to explain away. They looked up statistics about conception and told themselves that it was perfectly normal for it to take a while.
However, after nine months of trying without success, they decided to asked their doctor for help. He referred them to a fertility specialist who ran some tests. After a few weeks of waiting nervously they were hit with the news that Anna suffered from premature ovarian failure, which was an incurable problem that meant she would find it very difficult to conceive a child naturally.
They were referred to another fertility specialist, who was happy to recommend a course of IVF - which she said had a good chance of success - until the specialist checked their health insurance coverage and found that it didn't cover any fertility treatment.
For some couples, this would have been a small footnote in their journey towards having children. But for Jim and Anna it was a major obstacle. They had no savings, Anna was out of work, and Jim worked as a freelance Graphic Designer - not a job that paid particularly well.
The specialist told them it would cost $8,200 per round of IVF, and once it became clear that they couldn't afford it, she couldn't get them out of her office fast enough - she practically pushed them out of the door.
To cut a long story short, they managed to scrape the money together for one round of IVF by borrowing from family, and using the small amount of money they had saved for a rainy day.
The first cycle of IVF was unsuccessful and, after they had recovered from the disappointment, they decided to take out a loan to cover another round. Jim was hesitant to do it at first, but Anna was desperate for a child and Jim couldn't bare the thought of giving up hope.
So they took out a loan and paid for a second cycle of IVF. The disappointment when this round was unsuccessful was like a punch in the heart, it hit them hard and to the core.
But we all live on hope and Jim and Anna were no different. They couldn't bear the thought of giving up on their dream of a family. So they persuaded each other that it made sense to try one more round of IVF. After that, they said, they would call it a day and accept that it wasn't going to happen for them.
It was tough, but after few weeks of begging family, maxing out loans, and selling anything they didn't need, they finally had enough money for another round of IVF.
And it was the disappointment of the final round that left Jim sitting on the bathroom floor, holding Anna close to him as she sobbed uncontrollably in to her hands.
***
The months passed by and slowly things started to return to normal. Normal to the outside world anyway, internally they were left with a wound that ached anytime they were alone with their thoughts.
After a few months, the pain had healed enough that they began to discuss their options. Basically it came down to two choices; adoption, or surrogacy. They initially wanted to go down the surrogacy route, but after making a few enquiries they realised that the market price for a surrogate was $12k-20k - a sum that they could only dream of affording.
And so with a heavy heart they started the long and painful process of adoption.
The first meeting with the adoption agency went smoothly enough, until they got to the section on 'Financial standing'. Jim felt his stomach sink as the Adoption Officer went through their finances with obvious disappointment.
The meeting ended abruptly with Adoption Officer telling them that they would need to improve their financial standing and get out of debt before they could apply for adoption.
They walked out of her office with the now familiar feeling of deep and painful disappointment.
"I'm just going to go and freshen up" Anna said flatly, trying to hide the tears which were forming in her eyes.