Michigan couple Kari and Chad Bonnema had been trying for years to achieve a pregnancy. Their journey brought them to the unique option of Embryo Donation and Adoption (read more about their story in last week’s blog).
Working through a local fertility clinic, the Bonnemas received donated embryos on two separate occasions. But in both instances, the embryo transfers did not result in pregnancy.
Just a month after the second unsuccessful transfer, however, the Bonnemas received three more donated embryos. Deciding to try one final time, the couple had their doctor transfer all three embryos into Kari.
“It was a little nerve-racking at times, especially knowing that if you put in three embryos you have to be ready for the possibility of triplets,” said Chad.
But this time all of the Bonnemas’ patience paid off as two of the embryos resulted in pregnancy. In October of 2009, Chad and Kari gave birth to a twin baby boy and girl.
“We hadn’t known anyone who had done this before,” said Kari. “It was really an eye-opener for people. Not many people had heard of it – we hadn’t even heard of it. But now we’ll tell anybody about it. We love to share the idea with people and let them know that it works.”
Despite the long and sometimes challenging process, Kari said she and her husband are now strong proponents of Embryo Donation and Adoption.
“I would tell people to give it a try,” she said. “Yeah, it took us three times, but how will you know if you don’t even try? When I look back, there was always a part of me that wanted to be pregnant. Plus, these embryos wouldn’t have had a chance to live otherwise.”
Chad said that he would encourage men to consider the idea of Embryo Adoption – even if it sounds a bit foreign at first.
“I strongly recommend this process,” he said. “There is nothing like the beauty of seeing your wife go through pregnancy.”
Since nearly one in every seven couples struggles with some type of fertility issue, Embryo Adoption is likely to only keep growing more and more popular in the future.
For all of these couples, as the Bonnemas proved, this unique option offers another chance at pregnancy.
“For the couple out there that has fertility problems and feels like there is no hope – this is definitely hope,” he said. “We’ve been there before with the difficulties and struggles. This was just what we needed to have a family.”
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