Payson Woman Expecting Baby After Working 2 Jobs, Panhandling To Afford IVF

PAYSON, Utah – On the door of the Gale home in Payson hangs a sign that reads, “Welcome to Ft. Gale.”

“This is our refuge against the storm,” said Jessica Gale. This is the place we come to get away from it all.”

For Gale, home is much more than a place to sleep. It’s a place she shares her thoughts and fears.

“We all have a story to tell,” she said as she wrote on her computer at the kitchen table updating her online video log, “The Hilarious Gales.”

Gale’s story started about 15 years ago when she learned she and her husband wouldn’t be able to conceive naturally.

“It’s very humbling,” she said. “The desperation is what drove me to do that,” she said, as she reflects on standing on a street corner and panhandling.

When Jessica Gale wasn’t at one of her two jobs, she was asking for money from anyone who would drive by. She held a sign saying she was desperate to try IVF and she needed help. It turns out that help came in a big way.

“We raised all the money,” she said with a smile. “We then had an anonymous donor who came forward and paid for all the IVF medicine which is about $5,000 dollars.”

The Gales didn’t waste any time in giving IVF a shot and it worked. She still smiles as she replays the voicemail from the fertility clinic confirming the positive test.

“It’s still so weird,” she said. “I feel the baby kicking and it’s like, wow there is really a baby in there.”

After 15 years, things are looking up and baby Gale is joining the family in June.

A sealed envelope is on the refrigerator door now next to the picture of two embryos.

“Inside the envelope is the gender (of the baby),” she said. “Yeah, it’s sealed and I haven’t opened it. It has a sticker on it and everything.”

Some things are better left a mystery, after all what’s a few more months of waiting when they’ve already come this far?

“I’ve never been happier,” she said. “I can only imagine that as this baby comes it’s going to be even more.”