'Baby Or Bust' Couple Seeks $$ Online

A young couple from Wichita has turned to the Internet to help them start a family.

Brandi and Shelton Koskie have launched a Web site called Baby or Bust.com, asking friends, family, and strangers to help them pay for in-vitro fertilization.

Brandi, 25, and Shelton, 26, have been married almost four years and were trying to get Brandi pregnant the old-fashioned way for almost a year-and-a-half.

But they turned to a doctor for help when it didn't happen, and were told their best bet is in vitro fertilization.

Trouble is Brandi, an advertising account executive and Shelton, who works in the publications department of Cessna Aircraft Company, don't have the $15,000-plu per attempt that in vitro costs.

"We're still young, getting started off to some extent," Shelton told co-anchor Hannah Storm on The Early Show Monday. "And so, that is way out of our ballpark."

Brandi got the idea to try cyberspace.

"We figured," she told Storm, "this would be a really easy way to use the Internet as a way to reach everybody and tell our story. And by accepting donations on the site, we also thought we could blog our story, tell every detail (along the way), and hopefully educate others about infertility."

Asked if he had any trepidation about putting details about their situation on the Web site and approaching strangers for help, Shelton responded, "Of course, I did. But, the more people we told, the more people that came forward and said, 'We're in the same boat,' or, 'We know so many people in the same boat.'"Eventually, it came to be very comforting, actually, because we've met so many people, usually through e-mail, that are in the same situation."

And, so far, so good. The site's been live since July 1, and Shelton says, "(Monday) morning, we checked, and we were about $5 short of $1,500. So, it's doing pretty well."

Brandi says she wants a baby badly, commenting, "I'm anxious to come home at night, after a long day at work, and see that little face and, you know, all the stress and insanity of the world just kind of wash away. You can sit down and read a Dr. Seuss book. That's what's important."

She adds that, "We're seeing the doctor now, and we're hoping to do our first round (of in vitro) in February. We're hoping the site will work. But if it doesn't, you know, we're prepared to take other financial avenues to gain the money."

Shelton happily concluded, "We want to document the entire pregnancy, of course, if it's successful, and we'd love, absolutely love to post pictures of the baby once it's born!"