Our Precious Gifts (Part 1)

(The following was written by an embryo adoptive parent and was published in a Nightlight Christian Adoptions newsletter.)


by Chad & Tanya

Edited by Embryo Adoption Awareness Center 

Father’s Day was extra special for us last year, as our second son, Tyler Matthew, was born. He was born on his actual due date, June 21, at 3:30 PM. In fact, when I looked back at our calendar from last year, I realized that our frozen embryo transfer the previous fall had been at 3:30 PM. As our doctor said, he wanted to be punctual! It was six years ago on June 21 that our close friends gave birth to their second child, and at the time, I wondered if we were ever going to have a child.

Four years prior to that, we learned that it is medically impossible for us to conceive a child. Before seeing our fertility doctor, we had both separately learned about the Snowflakes (Embryo Adoption) program. After receiving our diagnosis, we quickly realized that we were called to adopt embryos. But like many adoptions, our journey was filled with ups and downs. We were matched with our first genetic family at the end of 2002 and adopted five embryos. Our first transfer was unsuccessful and the next scheduled transfer did not actually happen because the remaining two embryos turned out to be just one embryo, which did not survive the thaw. We were heartbroken by the disappointments, but we were still confident of our calling.

Soon after holding my friend’s baby that June afternoon in 2004, we had our third frozen embryo transfer. We had been matched with a second genetic family and adopted seven embryos, and we had already had an unsuccessful transfer from that match. As we realized that our pregnancy test would fall on our 8th wedding anniversary, I was confident that we would have the best news of our life on that day. But once again, we were devastated to receive a negative pregnancy result.

Stay tuned next week to see the amazing conclusion to Chad and Tanya’s incredible journey with Embryo Adoption.

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