Episode 205 : Building Military Families Network – Julie Eshelman

Julie Eshelman is the Founder, CEO, and President of Building Military Families Network where she took her struggles and lack of support and access to information in family building and created an organization to fill that gap for military and veteran families. Her own family’s experiences with infertility and the frustrations resulting from a lack of insurance coverage and a support network led her to advocate and launch a nonprofit for the change she desperately wants to see for the next generation of military and veteran families. Julie was named the 2022 Armed Forces Insurance Fort Leavenworth Spouse of the Year for her awareness, advocacy, and leadership in infertility and military family building.

Building Military Families Network is a 501c3 organization with a mission to provide an empowering and supportive network to military and veteran families navigating the challenges in the family-building process through support groups, education, and resources. Their Education Center and Resource Library empower military and veteran families with all the information and tools they need on their journey to parenthood. The Support Group Program provides families with peer support and builds community. Their advocacy efforts are focused on increasing insurance coverage and improving access to all family-building options for military and veteran families. Building Military Families Network is a beacon of hope for building military families.

Listen as Julie shares with Ellen and Jenn:

• Her journey to becoming an infertility warrior.
• Meeting her husband in college. Knowing nothing about military life but following him into it. 
• Trying to conceive for over a year and recognizing they should seek medical care. But the fertility specialist near them had a 12 month wait list and they had orders to move to Arizona. 
• Going through all the diagnostic testing while her husband was deployed. 
• Experiencing a miscarriage as they were driving across the country.
• Starting from scratch with a new fertility specialist, going through all the diagnostic testing again.
• Enduring the last-minute cancellation of an egg retrieval due to the COVID shutdown. Then, after restarting, suffering from ovarian hyperstimulation.
• Eventually getting to their rainbow baby. 
• Finding RESOLVE, signing up last minute for Federal Advocacy Day.
• Finding advocacy to be therapeutic and empowering.
• Starting the Building Military Families Network to do more for military families struggling with building their families. 

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: [phone].

Learn more about Building Military Families Network:

buildingmilitaryfamiliesnetwork.org

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