We have been married for 14-years and on our fertility journey for over ten. During those years we have undergone numerous test with fertility clinics and experienced eleven miscarriages. But our desire to become parents has not diminished. God has continued to provide us with love from our community, grace to support one another, and a desire to keep pursuing the family He has for us.
With our latest results, our hearts have turned to adoption and we would love to have your support on this new journey. We will be pursuing a unique form of adoption called snowflake adoption. A snowflake is a frozen embryo, which another couple fertilized through IVF in the hope of using for their own pregnancy. When these couples are done growing their family, they may have embryos left over which they can then choose to dump, continue to freeze, or donate. The embryo we will adopt has been frozen and waiting for us. What makes this style of adoption even more special is that Sarah will get the opportunity to carry our baby through pregnancy and delivery.
We will add one note about the science. If for whatever reason your beliefs about IVF do not align with our choice to adopt this way, that is fine. We believe that, whether naturally in the womb or through science in the laboratory, it is always God who sparks life. This is not a space to argue your points for or against embryo adoption. But if you want to learn more about the process and why so many families are choosing to pursue it you can explore the research at NightLight Adoptions.
We could not be more excited for this new season and want to start the process as soon as possible with your help. We are hoping to raise $20,000 to see this adoption come to fruition. That amount includes our application fees, home study, transportation of our embryo, legal fees, and IVF treatments. We would love your prayers most of all in this season. Many of you have walked with us through seasons of grief and loss for the last ten years and we are so grateful for your love and grace as we have grown. Pray that God's joy will multiply in this season and that our child can be a light in this world.
All our love, Sarah & Jeremy
You can say that November has been a flood of all of the emotions.
- Excited that everything is happening this month. Panic that everything is happening this month.
- Anxiety about starting meds while worrying about the embryos thawing correctly and surviving implantation.
- Joy and hope that a lifelong dream is being fulfilled.
- Fear that implantation won't take and we will have to start all over.
All of these thoughts and feelings have been swarming my heart and mind while we've also started our round of fertility meds, which hasn't helped things. Jeremy has been a trooper as he has had to learn how to prep the shots and administer them daily.
I will on in on Wednesday, November 15th, 2023 for an ultrasound and to make sure I'm progressing so that we can decide on the official first implantation date.
During my appointment last week when I got instructions on all the shots and medications we were starting we also settled on which embryos we would be implanting. We will be implanting two this round, baby B/A & baby C/B, and put a contingency plan in place if either or both don't survive thawing.
We are stressed but excited and continue to envy your prayers as we get ready to start the official countdown to implantation. We will have a lot to be thankful for this year.
Shalom,
Sarah & Jeremy
We got news last night that our embryos arrived safely at our fertility clinic, which means that we are within THREE WEEKS of IMPLANTATION!!! Keep praying as we continue to prepare for this next step, trusting the process to God.
Shalom,
Sarah & Jeremy
We continue to ask ourselves how things feel like they are moving so fast and so slow at the same time. We were told that contracts could take over a month, but we got word on Thursday, October 12th, 2023 that NightLight had received all signed copies and we were officially moving into Shipping Phase!
I'm attaching the helpful graphic our agent provided us with to give us a picture of the time and process that shipping takes to get the embryos from the clinic where they were created and stored, to our clinic where they will be stored and implanted.
Our fertility clinic is excited and we have been constructing a timeline that works with my body so that we don't have to do a round of shots for the implantation. As long as things continue falling into place, we will do our first implantation in November!
Please continue to pray with us. Pray that the embryos travel safely and none are lost in the process. Pray for our hearts, minds, and bodies as we prepare for this next step which is coming very soon. And pray for peace for our matched family as they also anxiously hope for news that their embryos arrived safe at our clinic.
Blessings,
Sarah & Jeremy
Our contract agent has been working to get some specific wording updated for our contracts about communication options, but she was able to send over our contracts last week for us to begin reviewing. We immediately started working on them and made an appointment to have everything notarized on Friday, September 29th.
As of now, there's nothing left for us to work on. We are in a waiting phase as the contracts are completed with the agency and our matched family. Then we will be waiting for our clinic and NightLight to organize transportation of the embryos before we can schedule the first round of implantation. They are gauging 1-2 months for these last few steps, so please pray for us to have patience as we await news.
Shalom,
Sarah & Jeremy
We received a generous gift in August, which meant that our first implantation is fully funded!! After our appointment with our fertility clinic, we were discouraged but determined to continue moving forward and reiterated to Nightlight that these were our babies and we want to give them a chance at life. Envita agreed to work with us, and their sign off meant that...
We are officially in our Contract Phase!
We have submitted final payments to Nightlight and Envita to begin signing contracts, my final health checks, and shipping the embryos to our clinic. Contracts and releases have to be signed by our matched family first, so we are trying to patiently wait while they take their time. We are praying for strength as they sign to legally release the embryos and relinquish their parental rights. We know that this could be an extremely hard thing for them to do and want to give them the time they need to feel confident in this decision.
Would you pray for them too? That they would have the strength to make this choice and feel confident in us to raise their babies. That they would be reminded of God's provision from the time they were created, and how He will continue to watch over them in this next season of life. And pray for us that we would have the patience and grace to endure the waiting.
We continue to receive more love and support than we could imagine and are so grateful to have you walking with us.
Shalom,
Sarah & Jeremy
