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
Jeremy and I had a call after our match came through to go over the embryology details with our fertility clinic and it hit us pretty hard. We have struggled to find an empathetic ear with all of our fertility clinics, but to have a conversation like we did with a doctor who isn't a believer and only sees the science was challenging to say the least.
He made sure we understood that the grading of our embryos wasn't desireable and told us we should have asked for better ones. After we further explained how that's not how the adoption process works, he turned around and made the conversation about money, only to tell us in the end, "I guess I will work with you."
We cried and prayed and decided we needed to talk to Nightlight for another voice in this discussion. Our agent reminded us that they've had high graded embryos not survive and they've also had low grade embryos survive. There's never a guarantee with the grade, but we shouldn't let one doctor's opinion overwhelm us with fear and uncertainty about these embryos.
God is the one who sparks life. The science can give us percentages and likelihoods, but we are trying to rest in the truth that it is God who will breathe life into our babies, we just need to have faith and be willing to provide the opportunity for Him to work things out for His glory.
Would you pray with us against the fear and the uncertainty that is still sitting with us? Pray that it wouldn't overwhelm the hope that is planted there. And pray for God to move mountains as we begin preparing for implantation in the next few months.
-Sarah and Jeremy
Well we completed our final call with Nightlight on July 19th so we could officially begin our matching phase, which we anticipated would take 3-6 months. The same day I got a call to move up my back surgery to the following day, so Jeremy and I scrambled to make that happen and I went into surgery and came out pain free - PRAISE GOD!
I went home to rest the following day and tried to focus on my recovery. Jeremy worked from home for a week to help me get around and pick things up for me while I was on a no bending or lifting over 10-lbs limitation.
Then as we were driving to my three week follow-up appointment on August 11th, 2023 we got an email from Nightlight - WE HAVE A MATCH! Jeremy and I couldn't believe it - we were overwhelmed and excited and tried to take a breath as we read through the brief email and saw that the family's portfolio and medical history was attached. Jeremy didn't want me to open them without him, but he let me read through the medical files as he drove. Then as we waited in the doctors office we saw our family for the first time. We knew then that these were our babies - I felt it in every fiber of my being.
We reached out to a few prayer warriors and asked them to pray specifically to help us listen to God in this choice and to not let our desires make this choice for us. But as we prayed and talked we felt more and more confident that this was our forever family and we connected with Nightlight to formally accept our match.
We cannot share anything about the family, unfortunately, but one day our babies will be able to share their story and tell you about their biological family themselves.
We are grateful for the love and support you continue to show us as we move forward into our Contract Phase and then towards Implantation. We'll keep you posted as we continue to take steps forward.
Shalom,
Sarah & Jeremy
Our Home Study has officially been approved! Praise God!!! We have a call scheduled with our case worker at Night Light next week to finalize our criteria so we can move into the Matching Phase of this process.
In Matching Phase Night Light will work to find families that align with our criteria, pray over specific families that could pair well with us, and present our portfolio to one family. If that family chooses us to parent their embryos, we will be given their profile and medical history to review.
You may be able to see that this is a very emotional part of the process as the donating family makes a choice for their embryos. Pray with us that they feel God's hand at work and have peace, comfort, and assurance in their decision.
Pray for us as we wait that we would continue to see God moving to prepare us for this next phase.
And pray for Sarah as her back surgery approaches and we work through her recovery and for Jeremy as he cares and supports her.
We love and appreciate you all so much.
Blessings upon blessings,
Sarah & Jeremy
We are excited to let you guys know that we received our home study from our social worker. We sent her some minor edits and she let us know she sent it off for approval 6/30/2023. So we are anxiously waiting to hear officially if we are approved and able to move into the Matching Phase of the process.
We are excited to tell you that we have raised the funds to pay for this next phase as well as our Contract Phase!!!!! Sarah did the math the other day and sat in shock, amazed to see how God is continuing to blow our milestones out of the water. All glory to Him!!!
Sarah is scheduled for back surgery on July 27th, so the little energy she has from small increments of sleep had been redirected towards pain management.
Ways that you can be praying:
🙏 Pray for Sarah as she prepares her body and mind for surgery on the 27th.
🙏 Pray that our Home Study would be approved without any hiccups from our adoption agency.
🙏 Pray for the family God has been preparing to match with us as they make their decision about entrusting us with their embryos.
🙏 Pray for us that we would not lean into fear, but choose to trust God as He continues to provide for us in so many powerful ways.
We are so grateful for your prayers and support as we hope and wait for our family to come to fruition.
Shalom,
Sarah & Jeremy
This week has been a whirlwind. Almost as soon as we emailed our case worker about finishing our checklist so we could do our Home Study, she emailed us to connect with the social worker and set a date. Luckily she said she had another family in Escondido on June 7th and wondered if we were prepared to accept that date. While it felt too soon, we agreed and Sarah went into full cleaning mode - baseboards to rafters were spotless, but it was our hearts that we were trying to settle in these few days.
Friends reminded us that social workers want to find good homes for kids - that's the best part of their job so we shouldn't let the Home Study scare us. We prayed and cleaned and prepped the best we could and overall we felt it went very smoothly. Our social worker still had a few things for us to complete (safety installments around the home) before she could complete her write-up but we are hopeful that we will be moving into the Matching Phase of the process very soon.
Thank you again for all the prayers, love, support, and good vibes. They are truly felt.
All our love,
Sarah & Jeremy
