After struggling with infertility for a year, this woman won an IVF cycle -- and her dreams of a family are coming true!

Vivian Manning-Schaffel: When 28-year-old Joni Sivey and her husband tried unsuccessfully to conceive for six months, she had a feeling something was up. Turns out male factor infertility was to blame, and IVF was their only option to conceive. But with medical bills mounting and the steep cost of IVF, their only option was almost ruled out as soon as it was ruled in.

"At that point, you go to the doctor, and you go to the doctor, and every time it's bad news. When doctors told us our only chance was IVF, we were crushed. Our insurance only covered about 50% of the testing, so we had these big medical bills," says Sivey. "In vitro isn't covered by our insurance at all. We hadn't saved up or anything. Our doctor had IVF herself and she was encouraging, but we still felt like we were slapped in the face."

Undaunted, Sivey set about looking into financing options. In her research, she unearthed an IVF contest from the Huntington Reproductive Centers, or HRC. "I noticed a small link in the corner about an IVF contest. I read a little bit about it and decided to enter real fast. Then I completely forgot about it."

Sivey's doctor, Bradford Kolb, MD FACOG, says HRC ran the promotion to celebrate 20 years of success in helping to create families.

"As a father of three beautiful girls, I understand the richness that children add to our lives," says Kolb. "Over the last decade, our practice has expanded internationally and is recognized as a leader for our high success rates, as well as a leader in the development of new technologies. We thought the most honorable celebration of our 20th anniversary was to provide treatment without obligation or cost to 20 winners."

To enter, Sivey had to submit a 500-word essay about why she wanted to start a family. Here's a snippet of Joni's moving entry:

I want a child so I can give the deep and profoundly unconditional love my mother has shown me. I want to see my husband's deep-set eyes and my chubby hands come together, symbolizing our commitment to each other. We want to raise a loving child into a deeply compassionate adult that cares for others and does what's right rather than what's easy or self-serving.

We want our happy ever after.
Deserve our happy ever after.

A month later, Sivey was shocked to learn she won a free IVF consultation. "As long as we passed a few preliminary tests, we could try for a free cycle. Since we were trying for so long, we were in great shape. And we got the green light."

Some of Sivey's inner circle thought the offer was far too good to be true. "My family was skeptical -- they thought it was a scam. My mom went with us to our first appointment, and when they pulled us into the financial office and told us it would only cost $1,500 out of pocket, I looked at her and said, 'I told you it wasn't a scam!'"

Sivey won the incredible prize of a free IVF + ICSI (microfertilization of the eggs) cycle and most of the necessary stimulation medications -- procedures that ring in at approximately $12,000-$15,000 per couple. Still, it was a far cry from a happy ending. "There was no guarantee it was going to work, but at least we had one chance," says Sivey.

As luck would have it, the one chance was all she needed. Sivey says, "I was in shock and started crying because I took I don't know how many of those tests and they were always negative. You see a positive and think the test is broken, so you take three more!"

Sure enough, blood tests confirmed that Sivey's long-cherished dream of motherhood was coming true. "We could not be happier with the result of our efforts," says Kolb. "Joni and Michael are a wonderful couple. They're in love -- and expecting twins (a boy and a girl) this January!"

And what of the other winners? "Of the twenty cycles that were given away, not all have completed treatment, but we are very excited that over half the couples completing treatment have successfully conceived!" says Kolb.

Now THAT'S a happy ending!

Vivian Manning-Schaffel has written for Babble, Parenting, The Advocate, The New York Post, Business Week and a variety of other publications and lives and works in the heart of breeder Brooklyn with her husband and two kids. She authors two pop culture blogs: The Mad Mom and A Hag Supreme, and is on the web at vivianmanningschaffel.com.