JOY, sadness, loss and HOPE. I’m sure many have a similar story, my husband and I had a rollercoaster journey to get to where we are today.
My husband and I met late in life and we married in 2008. We had our first daughter in January 2011. It was an easy pregnancy, labor and delivery and a beautiful baby, Scotia Rose. We decided to wait 2 years before attempting a second pregnancy. Sadly, that second pregnancy ended in 2015.
We began looking for other options for growing our family.
We are grateful to God and give Him all of the glory as we walked our journey. So many people helped us along the way: Our placing family, the Snowflakes team, our medical team, our family, friends and church. Prayer was an essential element for us.
We first learned about the Snowflakes program and embryo adoption in June 2017. When I started my research, I knew, that I knew, that I knew, this was the adoption choice for us. I had goosebumps all over my body and my heart was jumping out of my chest, beating a million beats per second. Without a doubt, we both agreed this was our path.
We were matched with a placing family who had 2 remaining embryos. In January 2019, we had our first FET. We were pregnant! I carried our sweet Angelica Irene for 5 months, but she passed away due to a horrible umbilical cord accident.
We felt defeated; the wind was completely taken out of our sails. We were confused and questioning what we should do next. We had one remaining adopted embryo. We took time to grieve and pray. We were committed to all the embryos we adopted.
Our second FET was successful, too. In July 2020, our hope was restored and our daughter Raylei Hope was born. Our family is now complete. We can’t imagine our lives, our family, without our two daughters. Our girls were conceived in the same year, but Raylei was frozen 9 years before she was born!
If anyone reading our story is considering embryo adoption we want to cheer you on! You may experience sadness, loss, doubts, fear, joy and hope in your amazing journey. It is worth it!