There are SO many stories that could be told, but I will share probably the most important one to our journey!
We are one of the first families to use the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program. Our first embryo adoption resulted in 6 sweet souls heading to heaven ahead of us. My husband and I waited a few months and ultimately chose to match with another family and adopt another set of embryos. We were matched with a couple from Canada who chose us to adopt their 5 embryos. After the obligatory paperwork formalities, a shipment date was arranged for our teeny frozen ones to travel from Canada to the US. Naturally my husband and I were tracking their trip which began just days before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
I was more than a little alarmed when I was contacted by Nightlight telling us that our cryo-tank containing our embryos had been detained at Customs. It was being held until the package could be thoroughly inspected! After many phone calls to Nightlight and Federal Express, we found a guardian angel in a Fed Ex agent who was touched and amazed when we shared our Nightlight story and told her the contents of that oh-so-valuable package! This lovely FedEx employee made it her mission to protect our frozen embryos and move them through inspection without the tank being opened. Those 5 little siblings arrived at our clinic the day before Thanksgiving 2001. Thankful? YES! What a gift! One of those five embryos became our beautiful daughter, Zara Elizabeth, Snowflake #18.
(Editor's Note: Because of this experience with customs, and other complications, Snowflakes ceased importing embryos internationally.)