Our embryo adoption story began in 2017. My husband was away, hunting. Out of literally nowhere, I felt a strong urge to look into foster care and adoption. I was not on board with that plan—I did not know where that came from! So, when Nic returned from hunting, and he said, “Hey, I think we should pursue foster care.” I laughed, knowing that indeed that is what we were going to do.

At the time we were living in an old farmhouse with only four bedrooms (all of which were already filled with our four kids) and one bathroom. Knowing we would need more space, we decided to rebuild the house. We moved into a fifth wheel trailer in one of our pastures where we lived for one crazy year. We were able to move into our new house in June of 2019. We felt ready to start our home study and licensing process for foster care.

In January of 2020, we got our first placement! We fell in love with this beautiful angel and were heading full steam ahead into the adoption process. However, we soon found out that a family member had been located.

It was devastating, but also wonderful. Reunification is always bittersweet. A chance to be with her biological family was the best thing for her.

It was difficult for our family to let go of our foster daughter. Was foster care the right path for us? I spoke with our caseworker and she mentioned the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program. Like many others, I had no idea what that was. My husband and I began to do research regarding embryo adoption and learned more directly from the agency. We decided to pursue embryo adoption.

In September 2020, we were matched with an awesome family who had six remaining embryos.

However, life became a perfect storm. The same week our foster daughter left our home, Nic was diagnosed with leukemia.

We were also in the midst of finalizing our embryo adoption contracts with our placing family. We knew it was only right for us to tell the embryo donor family about the diagnosis, and we were sad to think the match might be broken.

Their response was nothing what we expected! They said they knew those babies were our babies and that God was going to heal Nic. We finalized the documents at the same time we were in Houston seeking treatment for Nic. In seven days, he was completely clear of cancer. Seven days! He has been in clinical remission since June of 2021!

In November 2021, we had our first frozen embryo transfer with two of the six embryos. At our follow up ultrasound, we saw one very happy, healthy baby. In July 2022, we welcomed our Snowflakes baby boy!

It was a long, hard, and at times scary journey; but when I look at my beautiful son, I know that it was all worth it.

The Lord made a way for our entire family to come out on the other side whole. We still have our beautiful home, our foster goddaughter, a cancer free Nic, our kids know how to fight through hard things and trust God, our beautiful baby boy, and a dream for our other snowflake babies in the future. Only God can do this!

Do you have an embryo adoption or donation story? Send your story and photos to us! Post them yourself via Facebook and Twitter or email us your story and we will make it available on our Family Stories page, found on our website.

Email Paige@nightlight.org and help another family build their embryo donation or adoption story.

To learn about embryo donation and adoption, visit EmbryoAdoption.org.

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