Nova was born June 23, 2020, weighing in at a healthy 6lbs. 10.7oz.
Nova’s parents have an international story of how they met. Birth mother Yon (Mama) was born and raised on the Amazon in Peru. Her parents were missionaries and she grew up on a houseboat in the Amazon. She then completed high school and college in New Jersey before moving to Hawaii in 2001 and becoming a teacher. In 2005, she took on an adventure and moved to Dubai, UAE for an international teaching job. Mommy Jenny was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia and she too became a teacher. As a rugby player and international teacher, she applied for teaching jobs and moved to Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2007. Fast forward to the two meeting on the rugby field and the rest is history as they say. The two became a couple and together they played rugby and taught in the middle east for almost ten years. They then moved back to North America and finally settled in Hawaii,where they later married.
The couple knew they always wanted to have a family. In 2017, Jenny started the fertility process and became pregnant after her first IUI. Unfortunately, she had a late miscarriage that led to further complications. Over the next two years, Jenny worked closely with FIH on their continued dream of having a baby. However, after many surgeries and remedies to help prepare Jenny’s uterus to carry a pregnancy, there was some progress but still a lot of work to be done. The couple had to decide if having Yon attempt a pregnancy was a better plan to start to pursue. However, Yon was already 41 with a ticking biological clock and pregnancy was not something that she initially wanted herself. However, after much thought and consideration, Yon was given the green light to get started after looking at her general health and reproductive fertility, which were both excellent. After the second IUI, Yon was pregnant with a beautiful baby, whose gender they kept a secret until birth.
“We hope to work with Dr. Frattarelli in the near future to pursue a sibling. We are hopeful that time has helped with Jenny’s ability to try again and if not, potentially pursue one more pregnancy with Mama Yon.”