I've mentioned before that David and I have always wanted to adopt. We even talked about it before getting married. We've never been sure how that would look for us. When would we adopt? Before having biological children or after or in the middle? Where would we adopt from? Domestic or international? Private or government? Open or closed? What age? Infant or young child or older child?
There were so many questions and we were never quite sure, but the desire was always there. In the last couple of years I've just felt that it wasn't time yet. Until a few months ago. I'd been reading my usual blogs and some of them mentioned adopting. One was in the process of adopting. And my pastor happened to mention it as well. So it was coming up a lot. But still the same questions were there.
Then I read a blog post that spoke to me. It talked about a form of adoption called embryo adoption/donation (there's a bit of a difference, I'll cover later). When IVF couples have extra embryos that they no longer need they have a few choices about what to do with them, donate them to science, store them (costly), destroy them or donate them.
Once they are donated then an infertile couple or a couple wishing to "adopt" would then have the chance to expand their family with a child. Basically if you are pursuing embryo adoption/donation you would take the donated embryo and implant it in your own uterus and carry, birth, raise the child as your own.
Because the government sees embryos as property legally, they can be donated for other to have at a much smaller price than most adoptions or most fertility treatments.
The difference in adoption and donation is a small one. If you adopted you would use an adoption agency who deals with embryo adoption. And you would be subject to the same procedures as any other couple wishing to adopt ic: homestudy. If you accept embryos as donation you just deal with the fertility clinic and don't need a homestudy. The legality is minimal in both cases because they are considered property and not a live child. At least this is my understanding in the way this works.
For me this really struck me as something I really wanted to do. Because I believe that life begins at conception, then those frozen embryos are alive waiting for a family to take them home, just like any other child waiting for a family. I also really want to carry, give birth and nurse our babies. And if I could do that and provide a family for a waiting child then this was right up my alley.
So, after some research we have decided to pursue this for our family. It won't be an easy road, but we feel led to do this. There are high chances of miscarriage and the cost. While it's not as costly as most other options it's still more than we can do on our own right now. So, we'll be trusting God to provide the funds for what He wants us to do. Oh, and we will need to go out of state for all the procedures/visits etc. And I'll be subjecting my body to a host of medications to make this happen, something that I don't normally do.
It's definitely stretching our comfort zone on so many levels. But we believe that our child/children are out there waiting for us to bring them home and we can't wait to do it!
Nice comments make me Happy!
There were so many questions and we were never quite sure, but the desire was always there. In the last couple of years I've just felt that it wasn't time yet. Until a few months ago. I'd been reading my usual blogs and some of them mentioned adopting. One was in the process of adopting. And my pastor happened to mention it as well. So it was coming up a lot. But still the same questions were there.
Then I read a blog post that spoke to me. It talked about a form of adoption called embryo adoption/donation (there's a bit of a difference, I'll cover later). When IVF couples have extra embryos that they no longer need they have a few choices about what to do with them, donate them to science, store them (costly), destroy them or donate them.
Once they are donated then an infertile couple or a couple wishing to "adopt" would then have the chance to expand their family with a child. Basically if you are pursuing embryo adoption/donation you would take the donated embryo and implant it in your own uterus and carry, birth, raise the child as your own.
Because the government sees embryos as property legally, they can be donated for other to have at a much smaller price than most adoptions or most fertility treatments.
The difference in adoption and donation is a small one. If you adopted you would use an adoption agency who deals with embryo adoption. And you would be subject to the same procedures as any other couple wishing to adopt ic: homestudy. If you accept embryos as donation you just deal with the fertility clinic and don't need a homestudy. The legality is minimal in both cases because they are considered property and not a live child. At least this is my understanding in the way this works.
For me this really struck me as something I really wanted to do. Because I believe that life begins at conception, then those frozen embryos are alive waiting for a family to take them home, just like any other child waiting for a family. I also really want to carry, give birth and nurse our babies. And if I could do that and provide a family for a waiting child then this was right up my alley.
So, after some research we have decided to pursue this for our family. It won't be an easy road, but we feel led to do this. There are high chances of miscarriage and the cost. While it's not as costly as most other options it's still more than we can do on our own right now. So, we'll be trusting God to provide the funds for what He wants us to do. Oh, and we will need to go out of state for all the procedures/visits etc. And I'll be subjecting my body to a host of medications to make this happen, something that I don't normally do.
It's definitely stretching our comfort zone on so many levels. But we believe that our child/children are out there waiting for us to bring them home and we can't wait to do it!
Nice comments make me Happy!
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