Our Embryo Adoption Story
Our embryo adoption story started after years of infertility. We had no idea embryo adoption was even an option to grow our family. There are several ways to adopt or donate embryos. We chose direct embryo adoption. Direct embryo adoption allows the embryo donor family and the adoptive family to “directly” meet, instead of working through an adoption agency. Hopefully our story encourages you to consider embryo adoption and donation.
Rebecca + Craig + 1 IVF Baby + 2 Embryo Donation Babies = One Happy Family
I was born in Tennessee and my noticeable southern accent is so much worse when I am tired. Most of my childhood was spent on our small farm. I was animal crazy and had numerous animals: horses, cows, sheep, dogs, cats, hamsters, and Polly the parakeet. At the age of 5, I decided I wanted to be a country music singer ( Thanks Nashville). I settled on being a veterinarian as a more realistic vision and graduated from the University of Tennessee with my Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine.
My husband Craig was born in the great state of Texas. He worked his way through college and graduated with a bachelor's in business administration. He is a self-taught techno-geek (my words not his) and currently works as a senior software engineer/programmer. When he talks shop my eyes totally cross and I nod my head as if I understand. He is very involved with martial arts and loves working on his Hummer and riding his motorcycle.
I thought I would meet mister right shortly after I graduated college. God had different plans however and I met my husband through a Chrisitan dating website at the ripe old age of 33. I married my sweet and patient husband Craig in 2008.
Our Fertility Journey
We followed our pre-marriage counselor’s recommendation to wait 3 years before having kids. We tried for children but did not have success. Three fertility specialists, later we had our first daughter in 2014 when I was 39 years old. We tried IVF a second time soon after her birth and had only two poor quality embryos that did not take, so we decided to stop. It became apparent that the chances were very poor that we would be able to become pregnant with my eggs and we could not justify continuing to spend the money on probable poor outcomes.
We then looked at egg donation. My husband was not comfortable with that option so we considered adopting a baby. After much research on different types of adoption (domestic vs foreign ), cost and styles of adoption ( open vs closed ) we chose to persue embryo adoption first. We were very fortunate that we were chosen by a couple to adopt their embryos through direct embryo adoption. We adopted 12 embryos. Over the next three years we used 3 of the frozen embryos and were blessed with two more girls.
Help Other Couples By Donating Your Frozen Embryos
My biggest fear when starting IVF was we would have more frozen embryos than we could use. We almost did not pursue IVF for that reason. God must have a sense of humor though because we had 9 embryos left from the 12 we adopted. We were very excited to be able to donate these embryos through direct embryo donation and help another couple achieve their dreams of family.
I hope our direct embryo adoption story helps you to consider direct embryo adoption or donation. Embryo Adoption Project is a non-profit completely free embryo adoption website for donors and adoptive families. Our goal is education on embryo adoption and donation and providing a safe environment for adoptive and donor couples to meet. If you have finished growing your family after IVF and have embryos to donate consider direct embryo donation. If you have found us my searching " embryo adoption near me " or would like learn more about direct embryo adoption and fill out a free adoption profile go to ADOPT.