This guest blog post was provided courtesy of our friends at Nightlight Christian Adoptions.
Most people haven’t heard of embryo adoption before – even people who are struggling to find a solution to their infertility diagnosis. Embryo adoption is a fantastic option available to families who cannot conceive naturally, but strongly desire to become pregnant and give birth. Embryo adoption allows you to give birth to your adopted child! Embryo adoption is the fastest and least expensive way to adopt an infant child.
Nightlight® Christian Adoptions established the very first embryo adoption program 25 years ago. Their program called Snowflakes® allows parents with embryos remaining in frozen storage to select the family who will adopt their embryos and give birth to their adopted children.
There are well over 1,000,000 embryos in frozen storage in the United States. These embryos are what remain from couples who use in vitro fertilization. More embryos were created than what was needed for that couple’s family building. What happens to the embryos unused in freezers?
The only life choice for those remaining embryos is to donate them for reproduction. There are many ways to donate embryos. The Snowflakes program has chosen to apply the best practices of adoption to this process. Adoption is the word we use for bringing unrelated children into a family.
More than 1,000 babies have been born into loving families through the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program. Snowflakes is the only licensed and accredited embryo adoption agency in the world.
The placing and adopting families mutually agree upon their match. The next step is the legal exchange of the embryos by contract. Then the embryos are shipped to the adopting family’s fertility clinic where they schedule a frozen embryo transfer. If the transfer is successful, the adopting family will welcome their long-awaited bundle of joy in nine short months. If the family adopted a larger set of embryos, they may be able to give birth to genetic siblings.
There are many benefits to being able to carry your adopted child:
- You’ll be in control of their prenatal environment. Giving your adopted child the best possible start to life, you can control their environment through proper nutrition, exercise, and a wonderful pregnancy experience.
- It gives mom and baby lots of time to bond. Feeling your child move inside you, those first, fluttering kicks, and carrying them for nine months gives you time to get to know each other and start the parent-child bonding; mom, dad and baby.
- Time to prepare for parenthood. The nine months of pregnancy give you time to plan, dream, and prepare for your new role as a parent. Traditional domestic adoption, on the other hand, can happen virtually overnight.
- The adoption is secure: In the U.S. the woman who gives birth to the child is legally the child’s mother and the man to whom she is married is the child’s legal father on the birth certificate.
The Snowflakes program welcomes inquiries from both donor and adopter families every day. Call us at 970-578-9700, email info@snowflakes.org or visit our website.