In August 2006, native Brazilian Anabelle Petersen and her husband Tom were anxiously awaiting the result of an embryo transfer. Pregnancy was the joyous result! The Petersen’s had pursued In vitro fertilization (IVF), a medical infertility treatment, to help them begin to build their family.

The couple met in 1999 when Anabelle was vacationing in San Diego, California. They were married in June 2000. Anabelle and Tom tried unsuccessfully for five years to have a baby before turning to IVF. Egg and sperm cells were joined together in an embryology lab producing seven tiny embryos.

After the initial IVF treatment, embryologists placed their six remaining embryos into containers, freezing them in liquid nitrogen at -196°C. On April 28th, 2007, the tiny embryo Tom had needed a microscope to see had grown into a perfectly developed baby boy. Tom and Anabelle named their firstborn son Andrew.

In the years that followed Andrew’s birth, Anabelle and Tom were able to conceive without medical help. Their second son Lucas was born in February of 2009. Their only daughter Louisa joined the family in February of 2011, in spite of the fact that Anabelle was using birth control at the time. After having three children in four years, their family was complete. However, Andrew, Lucas and Louisa still had six potential genetic siblings who were frozen in time..

The Petersen’s contacted Snowflakes because they wanted to donate their embryos through a Christian-oriented program. The Snowflakes staff began searching for an adoptive family for Tom and Anabelle’s six remaining donated embryos.

When Snowflakes personnel presented an adoptive family’s profile to the Petersens for review it was an instant match. Tom and Anabelle quickly knew this was the family they desired for their remaining embryos! The two families were able to meet in person in the spring of 2012 the adopters came to the U.S. for their frozen embryo transfer (FET). The couples felt an instantaneous bond with one another.

The first time we saw our oldest son smile after tickling him, it melted our hearts.

Our oldest son. There are times we’d never thought we’d say that. Our son. After years of trying to have children – going through rounds of natural attempts, then rounds of IUI and IVF, and finally having a doctor say that it was just not possible – we heard what God had been telling us all along.

The truth is God had been speaking to us for some time about adoption. We’d always known we wanted to adopt at some point in our family. We’d talked about it and laid out a path for us – have a child or two of our own, then go through a traditional adoption to add to our existing family. Although the desire to adopt had been on us, God did as He often does; showing who is truly in control when our plans are confounded and His plans are revealed.

Matt’s parents had been volunteers at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, and through Focus, we’d learned of embryo adoption and Nightlight Christian Adoptions and the hundreds of thousands of homeless snowflake babies waiting in frozen orphanages. We again felt the call of God on our lives, so we jumped into the process.

That process was challenged by our military duty location at the time, assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel. How were we going to find a certified social worker in Israel to do a home study? How would we track down a way to complete our background checks? And if they wouldn’t ship embryos overseas, how could we even do the transfer? One by one, God opened these doors, resolving each problem and making it more clear that this is what He’d intended for us.

As we returned to the US, we found ourselves stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC, one of only a handful of bases with a military doctor who specialized in infertility and could administer the medicine protocol and perform the transfer. Out of dozens of possible locations to be stationed, God put us in the one spot that had the right doctor at the right time.

And that’s when the right family came along and selected us to adopt their little ones, a family with 20 frozen embryos and two successful births of their own. Nightlight Christian Adoptions brought us together, the embryos were shipped, and the military doctor performed the transfer at the tail end of Matt’s deployment to Baghdad in Iraq. Returning home, he joined me a few days later at the doctor’s office only to learn I was pregnant. The homecoming was complete in every way. God had taken us so far on this journey through the wilderness of infertility. He had taken our desires and bent them to His own.

On May 13th, 2012 (a most special Mother’s Day present), our twins were born – Jackson and Cade – crying and beautiful and alive. As alive that day as they had been eight years earlier when they were conceived. Now adopted, they were a part of our family, and we were humbled and honored to care for and raise them. We brought them home, knowing that God had the very best in store for us and for them.

Our family used Nightlight Christian Services in adopting our “snowflake” daughter, Makenna. We have a semi-open relationship with her genetic family and periodically, I send them photo books with updates on Makenna. Embryo adoption has been such a gift to us and I am so thankful to our genetic family for sharing the ultimate gift of life with us through their three remaining embryos. I wrote this poem & included it in one of the first photo books we sent them. I hope as Makenna grows up she will read it and know what a perfect plan God had for her all along.

“God created me, a tiny little seed
You gave me the gift of life and recognized my need
The need to find that family that was praying for me so,
You shared me with them and they helped me to grow
from a tiny little snowflake, no one would have guessed
into beautiful baby Makenna, the gift of happiness!”

(Makenna’s name actually means the gift of happiness:))

We adopted three embryos from them. Makenna was born on June 2, 2010 and we recently transferred the last embryo and found out we are expecting another snowflake baby in October, 2013!!

I heard about embryo adoption for the first time, I don’t know how many years ago, on James Dobson’s Focus on the Family broadcast on embryo adoption. I wasn’t married at the time, but I had childhood cancer and had undergone radiation on my abdominal area. Some of my doctors said to not worry about it, but another doctor said it could be an issue.

After my husband and I got married in 2006, we didn’t waste any time trying to conceive, as we were both in our 30’s. But we knew right away we were going to have problems getting pregnant. We discovered our chances of getting pregnant were very low—only about a 1% chance. I started thinking about Snowflakes (The Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program) again.

We were matched (with a donor family) in March 2010, and just a couple of months later, in June, our embryos were shipped to our doctor’s office in Dallas. Shortly after that, we went in to prep for the transfer. It took us three rounds before my uterus would respond the way they wanted it to. The doctor thought that only four of our nine embryos were viable, but that we had a good chance of getting pregnant with the four that seemed the strongest. We decided to thaw the best two and weakest three, and only one survived the thaw. Our doctors said we could transfer the one or thaw the rest, but we felt at peace with just transferring the one that survived. And that’s what we did. Everything went beautifully, I got pregnant, and that was Elisabeth.

Now Elisabeth is fourteen months old. I don’t think of her as not genetically related to us. Having given birth to her, I don’t even think about that. I don’t think about there being any separation or difference. We are in an open adoption with Elisabeth’s genetic parents. We plan to be very open with Elisabeth about her genetic family. They are very happy for us, very interested and excited. They are not overbearing at all, but they do stay in touch by email and phone every month or two. They also sent her a big package of things when she was first born – clothes, toys and some other sweet things. They also sent a gold cross for her when she gets a bit older. It’s been just perfect. As her genetic father said, “We all needed help, us with having children and them with being able to place their embryos with a family, so this was a way we could help you and you could help us. For us that was the perfect match.”

Our journey to embryo adoption

We’ve known about Nightlight for many years and have known many families who have used them for their agency. What we were about to find out was that Nightlight was more than an agency… it was a family of believers who would pray for you, cheer for you and rejoice when God answered your prayers.  In March of this year, we received an email about special case embryos from Nightlight. I was surprised to hear of genetic families who were open to older moms (I am currently 40) and many children being in a family already. The idea of special case embryos (at risk for a possible genetic issue) thrilled my heart in a way that can only be explained as God moving.

When I asked my husband about this, we agreed that we are pro-life which means defending life from its very beginning. Surprisingly, he agreed to have me call and ask questions. From that first conversation with Nightlight, I instantly felt at peace with their friendliness and resourcefulness. A few days later we received an email from Nightlight telling us a genetic family with special case Korean-American embryos had come forward.  We couldn’t believe God demonstrated his loving care for us and our heart by giving us a potential match that would fit beautifully with our family.

We continued to see His miraculous hand through the adoption process. Just as we began to fear a bit about finances, God did an amazing thing by blessing us with the Babushka scholarship from Nightlight as His way of saying “keep going..I’m with you.” Through obstacles with paperwork in our state and medical scares, each time I emailed Nightlight I was assured they were praying for us, would support us and that God was with us. I have worked with three different adoption agencies for our previous adoptions and never have I felt such love and support as we did with Nightlight.

God has given us a new platform to speak and share His story in our lives and His heart for all children… even “our babies in the freezer” (as my 7 yr old likes to say with big eyes as she prays for them!). We have had many opportunities to speak to our church and family to explain how the love of Jesus compels us as we move forward in this unique adoption. We have had the joy of choosing contact with the genetic mom of our snowflake babies and sharing with her about our process. We have been able to share our motivation and faith with our clinic and its staff and some have remarked that this story is amazing. We look forward to what God will do as I begin medicines this week and our baby transfer is set for September. We praise Him for giving us courage to walk each step of this road and praise Him that He is with us.  If God can be with a family of limited means and small faith like ours, then He can do great things in your family too when He’s the One who is calling you, He will be the faithful One who equips you to do it.

We placed our embryos for adoption through Snowflakes and this is our story…

After an IVF cycle producing 19 embryos, two embryo transfers and the birth of 3 children, we knew we were done building our family and needed to decide what to do with our remaining 14 embryos. For us, to destroy them was not an option so, do we donate them for stem cell research? We had seen what came from these little frozen embryos so once again that was not an option; we wanted to give them life! So we talked with a few friends and some nurses and were told about Snowflakes. We had a lot of questions and were given the answers in a very caring manner. We knew we were making the right decision.

We choose a family that was so much like us it was amazing. They were the first profile we saw but how did we wait to see another profile when this couple was so much like us? We called them Christmas Eve 2011 and told them that we picked them, and our family grew that night!

They called after the first transfer and told us they thawed three and implanted two (one did not make it through the thawing process) and I cried. I cried for the one that did not make it and I cried tears of happiness for the two that did. Then when they went to their first sonogram and to hear heartbeats they called to say they were pregnant with one. Once again tears of sorrow and happiness. Months later and many phone calls and emails later, we got the call they were having a girl!!!

We decided in October to go visit them for a weekend before our bio daughter was born and from the moment we stepped off the plane to the hugs and open arms I knew our life was changed forever, this couple and all of their family was now a part of ours.

We spent time with their families and had some alone time with them. I sat on the couch with her for a long time with my hand on her belly feeling our bio daughter kick and what a surreal feeling that was!  She is due December 27^th of this year (any day now) and we are so excited. We can’t wait to see the first pictures and hear of all her first milestones. We are already planning to get our families together so our children can be close for a lifetime!

There have been times of sorrow and doubt but the reality is we were not going to have 14 more children, and for us, the chance to give a couple what they wanted so badly and give our embryos a chance at life, and to be able to know them and be a part of their life, what more can a parent ask for!! This has been a very rewarding experience and I can’t imagine our life any other way!

Like many couples, during our courtship and early marriage we talked often of the day we would be parents. Children are a gift from God and we definitely wanted our quiver full! You can imagine our dismay after a year passed without any success. This turned into a seven-year journey of medical interventions.

Early on we considered adoption, but continued to pray to the Lord and ask Him to confirm His will for us. While on the Internet one day, I came across embryo adoption. I was excited to find that there might be an opportunity for us to not only adopt, but also carry the child. After discussing this option with our doctor, we were ready and eager to begin. Although we considered other agencies, we were impressed with the dignity that Nightlight Christian Adoptions brought to the process and the emphasis that they placed on the value of these little lives. At the end of 2006, I contacted them and began our paperwork.

In early 2007, we were so surprised and humbled that we had been selected by a couple to adopt their five embryos. We read through their profile and immediately felt a connection to them. After praying about the decision, we contacted Nightlight and let them know that we wanted to proceed.

Having gone through the embryo transfer in October 2007, we eagerly awaited to find out the results. I didn’t sleep well the night before my doctor’s appointment on November 12th. And at 5:00 that morning, I couldn’t wait any longer. I took a pregnancy test and to my amazement it came up positive for pregnancy. I dissolved into tears and woke Eric up to tell him we were expecting. This is one of the sweetest moments we have ever had in our marriage. We just couldn’t believe, after all these years, we were going to be parents. This was the answer to not only years of individual, but collective prayers.

My pregnancy was a wonderful experience, a truly happy time for us. It is amazing to witness the handiwork of God. On July 8^th our beautiful baby daughter came into this world. The best day of our lives! As Eric says, “We’re smitten!” Although we thought we understood, we now realize that the emotions of love and protection that you feel when you hold your baby are truly overwhelming. There are still times we find ourselves in tears, simply in awe of Kaitlyn’s presence in our lives. She is our miracle!

My wife Pauline and I started our family late in life.  Pauline was already 38 when we had our first child, a daughter who was conceived naturally. We hoped for a second child, but after a few years passed with no luck, we sought fertility treatment. Unfortunately, Pauline’s fertility had declined significantly over those few years, and we were told that the probability of us having a second child of our own even with treatment was very low. We were advised to try IVF with donor eggs, but we rejected that option because of our Catholic faith and our belief that life begins at conception. So, we just prayed and hoped for a miracle, since there was still some remote possibility that we might conceive naturally.

More time went by without any results, and eventually we started to look into adoption. Our research led us to Nightlight and the Snowflakes program. We had never heard of embryo adoption, and we were fascinated with the idea that we could expand our family while at the same time bringing into the world a living being in need of a loving home. After a few conversations with Snowflakes, we began the application process. By the time we completed the home study and all of the paperwork (which took some time), Pauline was already over 45, and we worried a little about this, since we knew that many families donating embryos specify a preference for families where the mother is under 45. Snowflakes suggested that we might get matched more quickly if we would be open to donor families with a single embryo.

We agreed to this, and within a few months, we had completed all the arrangements to simultaneously adopt two embryos from two different families. Unfortunately, one of the embryos did not survive the thawing process, but the other did, and nine months later Pauline gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby girl, who is now almost three months old.

We had been told that the odds of success with one embryo to transfer were relatively low, and we worried about that too, but it worked for us!! We feel incredibly blessed and grateful to Snowflakes for helping to make this miracle happen.

Several years ago, we learned that it is medically impossible for us to conceive a child. Before seeing our fertility doctor, we had both separately learned about the Snowflakes (Embryo Adoption) program. After receiving our diagnosis, we quickly realized we were called to adopt embryos. But like many adoptions, our journey was filled with ups and downs.
After several matches, failed transfers and miscarriages we had another transfer in February 2006 with our remaining embryos, and we had decided that this would be our last transfer if it was not successful. Instead, though, we were thrilled to learn that we were pregnant, and this time we were expecting twins! But once again, joy was accompanied by heartache when we had an ultrasound at 16 weeks and learned that one of the twins had died at the end of our first trimester. Thankfully, we were blessed us with Ethan Richard, who was born on October 19, 2006!

When Ethan turned a year old, we began thinking about how to expand our family. After our first experience, we had no idea what the path would look like. We were matched with a genetic family and adopted eight embryos. We had our transfer last October, and just prior to Ethan’s second birthday, we found out that we were pregnant! We suspected that we were once again expecting twins, but after a complication and an emergency visit to the doctor, we learned that we had been expecting twins but again had lost one of the babies. Thankfully, though, we were blessed with Tyler Matthew on June 21, 2009.

I find significance in the fact that he was our gift on Father’s Day, as we had previously had so many difficult Mother’s and Father’s Days, as is true for so many infertile couples.