Finding our snowflake baby

On the 22nd January 2014, I ‘stumbled’ across a podcast called ‘The Miracle of Snowflake Adoption’ by James Dobson. He was explaining how he had played a role in the first ever Embryo adoption. My ears and heart were completely flooded for a moment. This meant TWO SIGNIFICANT things….. firstly that I might actually be able to carry and give birth to our ‘own adopted child’ – a string of words which ordinarily would make NO sense!! How wild is that? BUT secondly and more importantly, couples who had undergone IVF and completed their families were being afforded the chance to donate their remaining frozen embryos (also affectionately known as snowflake babies) instead of discarding them or donating them to science (which ultimately ends in them being discarded). After listening to the podcast, I switched off my bedside light but dreams of this didn’t stop when I woke up the next morning or the morning after that. I wasn’t even deterred by the fact that agencies like Nightlight Christian Adoptions who offer this, only existed in the US (and it just wasn’t an option to spend in the region of – but probably more than – 200k to fly there for a 50% chance that the procedure would result in a live birth).

All I knew, was that God had started something – I was incubating hope!

Despite the appearance of hurdles I still found myself dreaming and stealing spare moments to pour over testimonies of couples who had both donated and received embryos. After further conversations and investigation I discovered that our laws in SA around the anonymity of parties involved, don’t lend to the same open and well communicated process of traditional adoption. And if you are outside of the infertility orb, you probably haven’t heard of it all. But Hebrews 11 rang truer than ever ~ “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…”

During this time, a friend sent me an unprompted message, asking if I had ever heard about embryo adoption. She knew it would be an ideal marriage of both my passion around preserving life and our desire to grow our family further. Incredibly her message came moments after I had printed out some in-depth reading material on the topic. This felt a lot like Gods leading and so after about 5 months and a flourishing list of questions, Hubs and I decided to chat to someone in the know, who apart from James Dobson, has been most instrumental in this recent phase of our journey. He is a fertility specialist but has become more like a father figure in the way that he has led and encouraged us.
[A little history: We had actually previously seen this specialist in 2010 to chat about our diagnosis / potential hormone adjustment options and had left his office with no new earthly solutions…. but friends and family can attest to the fact that at the time, we said it felt like the most significant meeting! We were almost giddy driving home and we laughed at how absurd it was since most couples in our position would have been sobbing. The difference was that Gods presence had been in that room and for about an hour our conversations were pointed heavenward and we were all equally encouraged. Even tho the meeting felt God ordained, we didn’t understand or actually even expect to ever see him again since the limited options that were available to us, weren’t options that we felt were right for us ~ this being our own personal conviction].

And now 4 years on…. we left the same meeting place with the same giddy feeling yet a deeper insight into why our previous encounter had felt so significant and remarkable. Isn’t God incredible?! It was all fully orchestrated by Him. The meeting 4 years ago, the podcast, my friends message, our desire to parent and our passion for LIFE! And so within the heartbeat of this reunion meeting, we were miraculously also the proud new parents of a beautiful little trio of embryos!

There could ~and maybe will be~ a whole blog post or ten where this next sentence lies>> but through a process that seemed against all odds… and for which we can only give FULL thanks to God… WE ARE PREGNANT!!!

This has surely been an extraordinary journey!
To experience pregnancy!
To experience Gods favour and such clear leading!
A tiny, delicate, frozen being, perfect and unique has been thawed and CALLED TO LIFE!

Welcome, my teeny little human.

Pooh bear and I agree:-
“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart”