A couple from Langdon, east of Calgary, had a simple Christmas wish list: they hoped for some good news. Their request follows two years of heartbreak and disappointment.
Joe and Karen Clark got married in 2012 but their dream of starting a family was delayed. In 2015, Karen suffered a miscarriage after an expensive round of IVF.
Most recently, in October, the couple endured a second round of IVF, which failed.
“I had lost hope then I’d get excited every time a new cycle would start. I’d think, ‘maybe this is it.’ Then I’d be crushed again. It’s a roller-coaster,” Clark said.
To make the financial burden even heavier this year, Joe was out of work for months.
“I lost my job, I got laid off. Been there a couple years.”
Then they suffered a devastating blow in June when Karen’s father passed away on Father’s Day.
“When is this going to end? Where’s our happiness?” Karen asked.
“We had to do something to look forward to. To change our mood.”
But it wasn’t Santa who answered the call, instead, someone just as joyful.
Their luck was about to change after a trip to the Ellen Show in October.
What they didn’t know was they, along with the entire audience, would be chosen for Ellen’s 12 Days of Giveaways.
“It was just pure luck. I think my dad had something to do with that.”
They were invited back to collect their prizes, including a trip to the Dominican and hundreds of dollars in gift certificates.
It was a rare feeling joy and that’s what they walked away with in the end.
“It put everything we had been through in the past – I didn’t think of it. It was joy and excitement.”
It was good experience for a change that has given them hope for a happier New Year.