Our Story: Making an Decision for our Embryos

The following 2-part testimony was written by embryo donors Melissa and Michael for the Nightlight Christian Adoptions newsletter. It is edited by the EAAC for the purpose of this blog.

We placed our embryos for adoption through Snowflakes and this is our story…

Michael and I started dating in 2003 and it was a long distance relationship traveling from Texas and Kansas to see each other every weekend. We realized very quickly that things were very good between us. We both shared a love for sports, outdoors and having fun so I moved to Texas with my teenage son in June 2004.

By 2005 we decided it was time to start a family together, only we faced one small problem… in order to make this happen we would have to do IVF. We started the long process and what an interesting, life building, educational process it was every step of the way. We were very fortunate that we were successful the very first time and had 19 embryos to choose from. We implanted two and soon after we were told we were pregnant with TWINS!!!

On June 11th 2007 Brooke Nicole and Bailey Renae were born. They were premature and weighed 4 lbs 2 oz and 4 lbs 6 oz respectively.  We knew for a while that we would not make it full term and our doctor prepared us for the babies coming early, so when they were born and  were able to breathe fine on their own and never went to NICU, we knew how extremely lucky we were!! When we brought our girls home they weighed in at 3 lbs 13 oz and 4 lbs 1 oz. A lot of the time after that is a blur but we did it!

Then in 2010 we decided it was time to try again. The first attempt at a frozen embryo transfer we implanted one and lost it a few weeks in. We then went right into another frozen embryo transfer cycle.  This time we implanted two and a few weeks in were told we were pregnant with one!! Brevin Daniel was born November 26th, 2011. He was 7 lbs 4 oz and a very healthy baby.

Now we knew we were done and needed to decide what to do with our remaining 14 embryos. For us, to destroy them was not an option so, do we donate them for stem cell research? We had seen what came from these little frozen embryos so once again that was not an option; we wanted to give them life! So we talked with a few friends and some nurses and were told about Snowflakes. We had a lot of questions and were given the answers in a very caring manner.  We knew we were making the right decision.

Stay tuned next Friday for the conclusion of Melissa and Michael's story.

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