Blake and I married shortly after college in 2008. We always hoped to have children, but several unexpected challenges delayed our plans to start a family. After eight years of marriage, we were finally settled enough to begin trying.
Our journey brought some unexpected answers. I was diagnosed with stage 3 endometriosis, while Blake had a slightly low sperm count. After surgery to treat my endometriosis, we were overjoyed to conceive naturally just a few months later. Our son was born in late 2017, and becoming parents was more wonderful than we could have imagined.
When our son turned six, we began hoping to add another child to our family. Testing revealed that my egg reserve was low, and I would need another surgery to treat my endometriosis. We were told that we had only about a 20% chance of conceiving using my own eggs.
As we considered our options, I began researching different ways to grow our family. That search led me to Nightlight Christian Adoptions and the Snowflake Embryo Adoption Program. Choosing a Christian agency was important to us, and we appreciated the opportunity to connect with a family who shared our values and wanted to give their remaining embryos the opportunity to become part of another family.
The possibility of carrying a child through embryo adoption gave us renewed hope. After discussing the process with our fertility doctor, who supported embryo adoption as a wonderful option for our family, we decided to move forward. We were matched quickly and adopted four embryos. We remain incredibly grateful to the placing family for the trust they placed in us and for the decision they made to give us the opportunity to grow our family.
Our first embryo transfer in April 2025 resulted in a chemical pregnancy. Although we were heartbroken by the loss, in July, we completed our second transfer and were thrilled to receive a positive pregnancy test. After everything we had experienced, the pregnancy felt especially meaningful.
In March 2026, our beautiful daughter, Rosalie, was born.
We are incredibly grateful to have her in our lives and to the Snowflake Embryo Adoption Program for helping make this chapter of our family story possible. Our journey to becoming a family of four looked very different from what we had originally imagined, but embryo adoption opened a door we had not expected—and ultimately led us to our daughter.
Do you have an embryo adoption or donation story? Send your story and photos to us! Post them yourself via Facebook 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.
Recent Comments