Drew was diagnosed with a rare genetic mutation causing the early onset of colon cancer prior to us dating or getting married. This rare mutation posed a great risk of being passed along to any biological children we would have, so we made the extremely hard decision to not have biological children of our own.
While we are grateful Drew is cancer free, he struggled with ongoing medical complications for many years. The doctor appointments, tests, exams, and surgeries postponed us staring a family well beyond what we originally desired. We saw God provide for us during many difficult times, and were expectant this would continue with the journey of growing our family. Adoption was on both of our hearts for many years, and we felt led to grow our family in this way.
We chose embryo adoption for many reasons, but this choice allowed Jaimi to experience pregnancy and childbirth, a dream she had since she was a little girl. We contacted Snowflakes in 2020 and began the journey of embryo adoption. We entered into this journey fearful of the financial aspect because we had not been able to save as much money as we had hoped due to medical bills. We were expectant for God to provide, and that He did. We were so grateful for all of the helpful staff at Snowflakes who guided us through this journey, helping educate us, fundraise, and match with a placing family. Everyone we interacted with was supportive, encouraging, and genuine in all they said and did.
We were matched with a family and adopted seven embryos. In November 2021, Jaimi had her first transfer of two embryos, resulting in a twin pregnancy. During the pregnancy, we built an amazing relationship with the placing family through letters, texts, phone calls, and video calls. The placing family traveled to meet us and attended family baby showers to celebrate the pregnancy. On July 18, 2022, Jaimi gave birth to Zoe and Tobias Kitchen. We are so thankful for two healthy babies and are extremely grateful to Snowflakes for giving us the opportunity to grow our family in this way. We have continued to grow closer with the placing family and they recently came for a visit to meet the twins in person. The siblings have a good understanding of who we are and who their siblings are, and the interactions between them are precious. We are thankful for an open adoption that will allow Zoe and Tobias to know where they come from and how loved they are. We look forward to this ongoing relationship and the many more memories we will share together.
