Susie and Tony Troxler never gave up on being parents. The dream never faded, even as Susie turned 50 years old.
This Thanksgiving, the couple will finally live out their dream with a newborn. Lily Antonia Troxler was born Sept. 29 – after more than a decade of infertility struggles.
“It’s really, really, really surreal,” Susie Troxler told Good Morning America of welcoming a daughter at age 50. “I’d been unmarried, I’d been a wife and now the idea of being a mommy, it still hasn’t sunk in I don’t think.”
Susie Troxler, a psychologist in High Point, North Carolina, married 61-year-old Tony, 13 years ago. She thought she’d be able to conceive and live out her purpose as a mother, but then the years kept ticking away and hope began to wane.
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Couples trying to get pregnant over the age of 35 are considered to be of “advanced maternal age,” according to several peer-reviewed studies. But Susie Troxler said Lily became a “miracle baby” in a separate interview with Cone Health.
“It was so surreal,” she said. “Everything had come together for that moment to happen. It’s hard to wrap our heads around – we’re no longer just husband and wife, we’re ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy.’”
Tony Troxler said he’s still trying to wrap his head around being a father. “Even now I find myself just staring at her,” he said. “Before she was born, she had me wrapped around her pinky finger.”
After Susie had a surgery in 2019 to make it possible to become pregnant, she underwent several rounds of IVF (in-vitro fertilization). They were unable to produce a viable embryo, and as a result turned to egg donation.
“When we got married, we just assumed we’d get pregnant, and then it didn’t happen,” she said. “But we’re both very old-school, and when we grew up, nobody even talked about or discussed IVF. It wasn’t even a thing.”
But those alternative methods became a pathway for the Troxlers to have Lily. Susie met with a new obstetrician-gynecologist, who sparked the hope she was looking for.
In February, the Troxlers had one last chance with a frozen embryo. Just a few weeks later, Susie was pregnant with Lily.
Susie said: “I’m of the belief that kids come when they’re supposed to come, regardless of the age of the parents. We look at it as this is exactly how it was meant to be. She’s our miracle baby.”
