Tuesday, July 8, 2008

An Announcement

Hi everyone,

Last night, we received the following email from the couple we met last week:
So......without further ado, [Genetic Dad's Name] and I would absolutely love for you and Todd to be the adopting parents of our precious embryos. We think you and Todd are wonderful people and we can't think of a more perfect couple to love, raise and adore any children that hopefully will result from this adoption. We can tell that you are going to make fantastic parents.

We hope you feel this is the right match for you both and we anxiously await your answer.

This was the answer we'd been praying for! So this morning, we called them and happily accepted.

There's so much I want to share about our story...how God knit it together, how He prepared our timing and our desires, how He orchestrated our conversation and how he even matched us with a couple so similar to our own selves in so ways. I'll try to take the time in coming weeks to begin typing everything up!

In the mean time, we are officially happy parents-to-be. There are 12 Embryos, all in the blastocyst stage (day 5 or later--great for implantation potential).

10 of them are frozen in pairs, so that is how we will thaw and transfer them. The other two are each frozen individually and we will either thaw and transfer them together or pair each one with another pair and have two transfers of 3. Assuming at least one embryo from each pair survives the thaw, we'll have 5 or 6 transfers.

The number of live births that will result from these embryos remains to be seen. The first Phoenix Snowflake family had 11 embryos, which resulted in one live birth. Another family we know lost a lot of embryos through 4 or 5 matches, and finally had two children. Our Genetic Family had 5 successful implantations out of 8 embryos, and 3 live births (and 1 miscarriage of twins). So it really can be all over the map. We could end up with 1 child, we could end up with 12. If I recall one of her emails correctly, their embryologist thinks that the most likely number is 3, maybe 4 (though for the life of me I can't find that email so if I'm remembering wrong, S, please forgive me!). It really is anyone's guess and all in God's hands. We're sure He already knows the size family He has for us so we are resting in that.

The next step is to wait for the homestudy comes back. Even though we are matched, we still can't move forward without that piece. When it comes back to our caseworker here, she'll transfer it to Nightlight. Once that is done we can enter the process of signing actual documents. The other family with have 72 hours from date of signing to change their mind. After that, our coordinator at Nightlight will coordinate the shipping of our embryos from their clinic (in the San Francisco area) to our clinic here, which will store the embryos and eventually do the transfers.

We will update when our homestudy is completed and when we sign documents and perhaps when the Embryos safely arrive in Phoenix. But we are not planning to announce in advance (even to family!) about when the first transfer will be so that if it is successful, we can enjoy the process of planning and surprising friends and family with the news, and also so we can protect the information if we find ourselves wanting to wait a little bit longer in to the pregnancy before we share. And, if the transfer is not successful, we can grieve in private and not have the pain of answering "how did it go?" a lot of times over from everyone who'd know to ask 10-14 days after the transfer date (about when a pregnancy test is conducted).

It's still a little while until we get to that point but we're telling folks now so that when the time comes, we can be cryptic without seeming secretive or intentionally hurtful. What we can say is that if things go smoothly, a transfer could happen as early as October-ish. But we won't know more til later.

So, that's our news! We're very excited! We are very eager to share our story with anyone who could benefit from it so please feel free to ask any questions!

Thank you for celebrating with us!

42 comments:

  1. Woohoo!! Congratulations! Such fantastic news!

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  2. Praise God! What wonderful news! Here's to becoming a 2009 mommy.

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  3. CONGRATS! CONGRATS!

    I don't even know where to begin! I remember the feeling when we got accepted into the Walter Read ART program & they asked for my credit card info to pay for the first portion of it. I could barely speak & luckily I was sitting down otherwise I might have fallen...my legs were shaking!

    God chose to only give us 2 embryos. We only had 6 eggs & 4 of them did not fertilize at all...no conception. But we had 2 very healthy embryos & transferred both...we have 1 healthy 14 mo old girl now!

    Infertility can be so lonesome...but I'm learning (thru bloggin) that it doesn't have to be. I wish I'd known there was such a great community out there when I was battling through IF. But I am still IF and we are now planning baby #2...we are going a different route but I will blog more about that later. :-)

    SO HAPPY FOR YOU! I know just by your bloggy-voice that you will be a great mommy!

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  4. Congratulations! That is such wonderful news!!!! I'm very excited for you and look forward to your next announcement. =)

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  5. Ah ha!!! So I get to be a pg-detective now!!! I'll follow you around every week starting October and say, "So, are you pregnant? Hmmmm???? Hmmmmmmmm????" Ha ha!!! We're so excited for you!!! Here's to motherhood in '09!!!

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  6. That is great news! We are so excited! Can't wait to hear updates and will pray that everything continues to go smooth!

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  7. I just got your email and then read it here too. We are so excited for you and Todd (and the kids!) What amazing parents you guys are already to them.
    We are praying for the remainder of the process to go well and we are also praying that God will protect the children during the transfer process. We love you!

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  8. Wonderful news! Congratulations! I hope everything continues along in such a flawless manner.

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  9. CONGRATULATIONS to you and Todd - that's fantastic news!!!

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  10. I am so excited for you and Todd!!! Congratulations!!!

    I will continue to keep you in my prayers. I can't wait for the next big announcement to come along.

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  11. Yay! All those prayers have been working...(I've been keeping you in mine!) What a beautiful beginning :-) Congrats!!

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  12. Wonderful news, Jen! I am grinning ear to ear for you guys!!!!!!!

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  13. Yay! That is awesome! I'm so excited for you guys! I hope that homestudy comes back quick so you can move forward whenever you want!

    Congrats!!!!

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  14. That is so amazing!!! Congratulations!!

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  15. Congratulations Jen and Todd!! I'm so very excited for the two of you!!

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  16. Oh, tears! I'm SO happy for you guys!

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  17. Congratulations!! What wonderful news!

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  18. Thanks so much for sharing the wonderful news!

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  19. Congratulations. He really does make all things beautiful in His time.

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  20. Congratulations!! Yeah!!
    God is so good!!

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  21. COngrats!!!! here from Lost and Found

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  22. Congratulations on your adoption! you will make wonderful parents!

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  23. Oh, Jen, this is wonderful news! Congrats! Andrea

    PS. You commented on my livejournal the other day (I'm txnarmywife). Thanks for the kind words.

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  24. Congratulations! I am so happy for you!

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  25. Jen, words just cannot express right now how excited I am for you both. In fact, right now I'm just speechless with joy.

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  26. that's wonderful news! congratulations :)

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  27. i am SO happy for you guys!!!!

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  28. Awesome MJ! Great new! :) So happy for you guys!

    (Oh, and side note...thought of you with the ads for the Narnia exhibit downtown) ;)

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  29. Congratulations! I'm so excited for you guys!

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  30. Congratulations to you and Todd!! I wish you all the best!!!

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  31. Great news Jen. Congrats to both of you.

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  32. Oh MJ, I am soooooo, sooooo, sooooo happy for you and Todd. This news has made my heart sing for you! I am in tears typing this. I pray that you have an easy and successful transfer and that soon enough you and Mr. Jen are welcoming BJ *Baby Jen* into your loving family.

    Love, your favorite Husker Fan!

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  33. Congratulations Jen! I am very happy for you!

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  34. That is awesome news! Congratulations to both of you!!!

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  35. MJ I am sooooo happy and excited for you!!! That is such wonderful news!
    SMOOCHES!

    Phanny

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  36. That is WONDERFUL!
    I know you are all so excited!
    God Bless!

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  37. oh this is absolutely amazing news.
    congratulations over and over and over again Jen & Todd

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  38. Congratulations on your match!

    We're juuuust starting to look into EA and I'm going to enjoy reading about and catching up on your journey.

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