When people contact me, the biggest request I receive is "Where can I learn about other people's stories?" That's a very valid question and one I hope I can be able to answer.
With that said, I would love to hear your own personal story pertaining to Embryo Adoption and/or Donation. I would love to hear from Placing Parents, Donating Parents, and Adopting Families. So, if you have something you'd be willing to share, no matter where you're at in the process of EA, please post it as a comment under this thread and don't worry about it being too lengthy. Share as much information as you feel comfortable. Also, you can be totally anonymous and or change the names in your story...whatever makes you feel comfortable. What's most important is that you do share your thoughts and heart surrounding your own story....the good, bad, and the ugly. Please know that the information that you provide for others to read will be priceless. As you know, it's so hard to obtain good information on the Embryo Adoption process, especially for those who are in the place of relinquishing their embryos. Information is key in knowing if you can even follow through with relinquishing your embryos.
Please do share.
Blessings,
Sheila
8 Responses to “Would you be willing to share your story on Embryo Adoption or Donation?” Leave a reply ›
My husband and I donated 14 embryos to a couple with an open agreement through Miracles Waiting. They now have a 5 month old baby. I would love to talk to other genetic parents who would like to share their journey. Feel free to send me an email to: b1ostrander@yahoo.com
My husband and I learned about our infertilit issues early into our marriage. I have MS so we decided adoption was the best course of action for us. Unfortunately we were chosen by a birth mother who was a scammer and I ended up testifying in grand jugy trial against her. She was sentenced to jail for 7 years. On the drive home my husband and I decided to try fertility treatments because there we no reason why I couldn't get pregnant. Plenty of people with multiple sclerosis get pregnant. We did a number of unsucessful inseminations and I wanted to return to adoption. My husband wanted to see things through so we decided to try IVF. Unfortunately I had ovarian hyperstimulation. Eventually I did end up doing a FET that was negative. Unfortunately the doctor never told me to wean off the progesterone and I ended up having an MS relapse (my first one in 9 years). After that my husband agreed to domestic adoption and we adopted a beautiful wonderful baby girl, but we still had 9 embryos. I cannot carry the embryos and my only choice was to use a gestational carrier. We talked about the situation and decided that if we wanted a sibling we would rather adopt so they would be "equal" and neither one would be a genetic child. Then I had a friend who lived in another country and was having difficulty adopting there so I asked her if she would be intersted in the embryos. She was and we are in the process of getting all the logistics together. I believe the embryos are going to be shipped to the clinic she is going to use. My clinic didn't do donor embryos. We are in the process of getting all the paperwork ironed out.
Sheila, I am an adoptive parent and I am interested in sharing my story. My blog has most everything on there. There is a section to the side under "Pages" with most of the history.
I am forever grateful for the gift the donor family gave us. I know it couldn't have been an easy decision for them, but I am so glad that it is the decision they made. Although I don't have direct contact with our donor family, your blog as given me some insight as to what they must be going through.
Thanks,
My husband and I have been married since October 2006. Almost immediately we decided to try to have children. This was our first marriage for both of us and neither of us had children. At the ages of 36 (me) and 42 (him) we didn't want to wait. I had been very faithfully on the BCP since 1989. Dr. after dr. told me there was no harm in being on the pill for any amount of time... now I wonder.
After six months of trying, I took Clomid for 3 months. One of the worst experiences I've had with a drug. Then we had my husband tested. Low sperm count... low enough that the urologist told us that IVF was our only option. I felt like we'd been socked in the gut. I always thought of IVF as the last option... the most difficult. Wasn't there something else in between?
When we got over the shock, we dove in head first. Our clinic had a 60% success rate with women in my age group! Fantastic... unless you're in the 40% group. That's where we fell... four times.
After four unsuccessful IVF's (each a fresh cycle) we found out that our clinic had an embryo donation program. We thought long and hard about this... was this right for us? We also at the same time went though our state's adoption training program. Fairly quickly we decided that state adoption wasn't for us. I could not accept that as our option for what I pictured our family would be. I feel selfish admitting that - but I'm being honest here. I wanted a to be pregnant, feel a baby growing inside me and enjoy that experience.
We went ahead and put our name on the list to receive embryos - and waited just about a year. They called me 2 days before my birthday... and my heart raced as I heard the words. "Your names are next on our list. When would you like to come in to select embryos?" It was like the best day ever! I immediately thought about the families who had given their embryos to this program. People like us who knew the pain of infertility. Truly unselfish people with a deep love for their their unborn children.
We quickly settled on a set of 8 embryos. We smiled as we both pointed to the profile together. So many similarities with ourselves - we couldn't believe how lucky we were!
Just 6 short weeks later, we transferred two of the embryos.
November 30, 2009, I received a call from my husband. He had called the patient info line where they leave your test results...he tearfully told me a number ...212 - We're pregnant! I had to ask him again... he said - "You're going to be a mommy!"
I have to tell you that there are days still that I cannot believe it's happening. I am almost 29 weeks pregnant with a little boy. We talk often about what we will tell our son about the two people who created him - we like to think they made him especially for us. Though our program is anonymous, they do give you a lot of info about the couple, with medical information in detail. If there's ever an opportunity for us to meet this couple, we will take it. It does make me sad sometimes to know though that we and he may never be able to meet them. We want to thank them from the bottom of our hearts. I don't know how to convey the gratitude that we feel for this couple - their loving act has changed our lives forever.
Hi,
Our blog: http://3babes2jens1cause-embryoadoption.blogspot.com/ was created by 2 Jens whom have been blessed through the miracle of embryo adoption with 3 babes. We have lots of information on our blog about EA and a blog list of 15+ families that are in some process of EA. We are here to help and support any family who is interested in EA.
Blessings!!!
2 Jens
Hi Sheilia & Kim,
My name is Patty Cassidy, and my husband and I are the ones who donated the embryos you refer to from the blog at NEDC. Chris from NEDC sent me the link to this site, and I wish that I had had the opportunity to hear others stories before making such an important decision.
We were fortunate to have chosen a family that is truly as wonderful as they originally sounded. I've been in contact via e-mail with Marti since the her twins were born (they are 2 yrs), and our families have spent time together twice.
I'm looking forward to following the postings at this site, and would be happy to share our story.
Best of Luck,
Patty
Thanks, Sheila, for your functional blog and excellent moderation. And thanks to Kim, for her kind mention of the online conversation our NEDC moms have cultivated.
Chris Barrett, NEDC
After years of IF I discovered that I had elevated prolactin levels. An MRI showed a tunor on my pituitary gland. Medications were able to lower the levels, and the tumor is believed to be benign. Later an hsg showed that both my tubes were blocked with fluid.
According to my doctor, it had never been proven weither the fluid in the tubes would affect a positive IVF. So, in June of 2008 we did our first IVF cycle. It failed, and I then decided to go ahead and have surgery to remove both the tubes. That was in August. On November 1st, we transfered in 3 frozen embryos (from our fresh cycle in June) and one took.
We now have a beautiful baby girl, who is 8 1/2 months old. As my husband really wants a boy, we are planning on doing another fresh cycle, using pgd for gender, this fall.
So, I began researching our options for our 2 current remaining frozen embryos (from June 08.) During my search, I came across a forum, and another women told me about this blog. I have had the opportunity to talk (via email and fb) with Sheila and have been helped by her story, input and advice.
I found a great blog through NEDC that has the stories of a placing family, the adoptive family they choose, and another women who is currently pregnant with adopted embryos. It has brought great insight into EA for me. Here is the blog: http://embryodonation.wordpress.com/
We are in the begining stages of finding adoptive parents for our embryos. As, we want to be able to place all embryos (the current 2 and any remaining from our next cycle this fall)together. I researched into NEDC and Snowflakes. We have decided to not use NEDC because as placing parents with them, you have to send your embryos to them for storage. I was worried that we'd send our embryos then not find the "right" adoptive family through them, then have to pay for shipping and storage again somewhere else. We may go with Snowflakes, however I think we will most likely choose to persue EA with the help of Miracles Waiting:http://miracleswaiting.org (A forum based site where placing and adoptive families can meet.)
We have found 2 amazing, homestudy approved, families through Miracles Waiting. I have been able to talk to them via email and am hoping that we will match with one of them. Both of the families we found had been waiting a long time to match for EA and have both decided to persue adoption (one foster adopt and one international,) so we are all keeping each other updated and will see once we do our IVF who (if either) is ready and willing to grow their family with EA.
I wish everyone goodluck and blessings on their EA journey.
PS Thanks for this blog Sheila