Our story started in 2014, when we decided it was time to try and have a baby. And try, and try, and try again….
Four years later, we gave up ‘trying’ and surrendered it to God. Our fertility clinic suggested IVF, and we decided it was time to give it a shot (pun intended). We were lucky, and that cycle resulted in our first daughter, Abrie, and two years later, Charlotte.
That IVF cycle left us with four remaining embryos, which (in all honesty) freaked us out.
We had no desire for a large family, but as Christians discarding the embryos or donating them to science didn’t feel right either. We were in limbo, so we did what a lot of couples do and paid the embryo storage fee to avoid making a decision.
Eventually, we stumbled on an infertility documentary called ‘One More Shot’. It was the first time we considered embryo donation as a possibility. Seeing a real family successfully adopt and give birth to embryos made us rethink that option. It still made us uncomfortable to think about a child born to a family we did not know, but we prayed for clarity. God slowly softened our hearts, and we became at ease with the decision.
Our fertility clinic suggested Snowflakes to learn more. We had no idea what we were getting into. We thought it was like a sperm donor, where we would sign over the embryos and never hear from them again. We had no idea it was an open adoption program and that we could get to pick the family or stay in communication if we wanted to. I think God was guarding us through the process because as the information unfolded, we became more and more open minded.
We quickly matched with an adoptive family in Texas and were amazed at what an remarkable job Snowflakes did pairing our two families!
It was almost comical how much we had in common and how instantly we clicked. We immediately said yes. The adoptive family viewed our profile in return and graciously adopted our embryos.
The first three transfers failed, but the last and final transfer was a success! In May 2024, they gave birth to a sweet miracle baby, Stella. We are ecstatic knowing they will be able to give this child more love and attention than we would have ever been able to. We started with letters, then emails, and texts. Now we Facetime and hope to meet them one day soon.
Our two daughters will grow up knowing and loving their ‘sorta sister’ Stella. When we were going through infertility, I used to ask God, “Why us?” Now I smile because I know why God chose us… It was for Stella.