Ten years ago Anabelle and Tom decided to pursue in vitro fertilization in order to bring children into their family. Success! They had their first baby boy. When he was 14 months old Anabelle surprisingly found out she was pregnant with baby boy number two. And they still had 6 embryos in frozen storage.
But they weren’t ready to make a decision about their embryos.
Without medical assistance along came baby #3 for the couple and a little daughter was born! Now Anabelle and Tom had three children and 6 embryos in frozen storage. They knew they had to make a decision about these embryos. Their options were limited: They could continue to store them, but the cost was no longer easy to budget. They could thaw the embryos and discard them, no, that wasn’t their choice. They could donate the embryos to science, but this too would destroy the embryos. The only choice left to them was to donate for reproduction. They wanted to give their embryos life. They wanted to have a say in who received their embryos. Their clinic would not allow for this, but Tom’s internet search allowed him to discover an embryo adoption agency that would.
Through the program, they were introduced to another couple. The couple was everything that they were looking for in an adopting family. After their contracts were signed, transferring the embryos into the adopting family’s care, the adopters arranged with their doctor to have two of the 6 embryos thawed and transferred. They gave birth to their first son, the full genetic sibling of the placing family’s kids. Two years later the adopting family had a second frozen embryo transfer and baby boy #2 was born. The adopter’s had their final transfer with the remaining embryos gifted to them this summer (2016) and they are looking forward to the birth of baby #3 in 2017.
As you can see in the photo the families have become good friends and view one another as extended family. Recently the placing family’s kids said to their mother, “Wouldn’t it be so cool if they have a family just like us? Boy, Boy, Girl?” They’ll find out soon!
The focus of embryo adoption is to help families who have remaining embryos choose life for those embryos by placing them for adoption into a family matching their preferences. The level of open relationship between the matched families is mutually determined by the families, not the agency.
Watch the webinar “Fearful to Fearless: Understanding the Benefits of Open Adoption” brought to you by the Embryo Adoption Awareness Center or Listen to the Podcast on Spreaker.
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