The Embryo Adoption Podcast

Meet Katherine Jackman, the first grandmother featured on The Embryo Adoption Podcast. After remembering President Bush's 2005 "snowflake children" White House event, Katherine suggested embryo adoption to her daughter and son-in-law during their fertility struggles. Their journey brought Katherine a new grandson and even inspired her to write a new children's book explaining embryo adoption through a farming allegory! You'll be enriched as Katherine shares her unique perspective on supporting adult children through the process, the unexpected emotions of embryo loss, and the joy of welcoming her miracle grandson.  Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you get your audio.

In this moving episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast, Executive Director Tamara Martin of Arrows in the Sky shares profound insights on navigating the complex grief of failed embryo adoption transfers and pregnancy loss. Drawing from her own hard journey, Tamara discusses how spouses may grieve differently and the vital importance of memorializing lost children. Plus, she shares her ministry's mission of providing free care packages with grief resources to families facing infertility and loss. Tamara's compassionate perspective provides validation for the grieving and guidance for those supporting them. Find this podcast helpful? Spread the word! Share, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your audio.

Why does the NEDC require its adopting families to complete a home study, and what's involved? How are open adoption relationships worked out? And why do all NEDC adopters go through training/education modules? Christian Adoption Consultants Lead Social Worker & Embryo Program Coordinator Rebekah McGee answers all those questions and more in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. Plus, Rebekah shares the heart for adoption that led her to this work in the first place. Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Ben & Emily Parker felt called to embryo adoption- seeing it as a beautiful picture of the Gospel in miniature, and less of a rollercoaster for their three young daughters than other forms of adoption or care for vulnerable children. In this episode, hear how their journey's going & how they're sharing it with their daughters. Plus, they encourage other families -fertile & infertile- to pursue embryo adoption as a way to affirm the value of human life, not solely as treatment for infertility. Find this episode helpful? Spread the word! Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Ezekiel Lee went from thinking embryo adoption sounded “so sci-fi”… to becoming an NEDC dad! But he and his wife Rachel were frustrated there was no book comprehensively covering how to pursue embryo adoption. So, Ezekiel decided to write it himself! He talks about the book, Once Frozen, Now Family: How to Pursue Embryo Adoption, and How Seven Families Did It, in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. Plus, he and Rachel share their own story. Here's a link where you can order the book: https://www.amazon.com/Once-Frozen-Now-Family-Adoption/dp/B0DY1VW7LG?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Philip and Kahlie share their seven-year journey through infertility, their decision to pursue embryo adoption, and the challenges they faced—including selecting embryos during a natural disaster! They also reflect on how the whole process deepened their spiritual understanding of adoption, inspiring them to advocate for embryo adoption in their community… all in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

At first, having children came easy for Eric & Nana. But then they encountered secondary infertility before they felt their family was complete. In this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast, find out how they turned to two kinds of adoption -including embryo- to complete their family. In the process, God brought them a youngest child who was actually conceived before their oldest!  Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Abby & Bryce Thomas may be the only couple we know who literally drove all night (they actually slept in the car!) to get to their frozen embryo transfer. While the early part of their journey with the NEDC didn't work out as they hoped, they felt led by the Lord to return three years later. Now, as you'll learn in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast, things are totally different. You'll love this story of how God has grown Abby & Bryce to a family of six- and not just through embryo adoption!

Randy and Jenni share their journey from unexplained infertility to the joy of parenthood through embryo adoption, guided by faith and ethical considerations. They reflect on the emotional process, the birth of their son Silas (frozen for 9.5 years!), and they have a surprise to unveil, so listen all the way to the end! Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Because of a previous battle with a tumor, Drew knew having children might be a challenge when he & Chrissy got married. He was right, but now they're both thankful for their eventual answer -embryo adoption- and confident it was the road God had for them all along. It's even created opportunities for them to share their son Theo and his story at art shows! But more than anything, it's taught them that God is enough, even when facing the possible death of a dream. Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this compelling Season 5 kickoff episode, we hear from Hannah Strege, the first official embryo adoption baby, as she shares her extraordinary journey and ongoing advocacy for embryo adoption. From her parents' simple "seed analogy" explanation of her origins to memorable moments like visiting the White House, Hannah's story is both inspiring and thought-provoking. She reflects on her genetic family, discusses her unique perspective on embryo adoption as a bridge in the pro-choice/pro-life debate, and calls for necessary reforms in the fertility industry. Now a licensed social worker, Hannah envisions a future dedicated to adoption counseling and raising awareness about this life-giving option for families facing infertility. Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Donors' and recipients' feelings can change in surprising ways during the embryo adoption process, so anticipating the unexpected can lead to a better experience. In this Season 4 finale of The Embryo Adoption Podcast, psychologist Dr. Jaclyn Davis shares key findings from her extensive research with embryo adoption families.  NOTE: If you would like to learn more about joining Dr. Davis's embryo adoption support group, you may email her at jaclyndavisphd@gmail.com. Here is the link to her private practice: https://www.glenforestpsychological.com/. Spread the word! Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

After a long stretch of unexplained infertility, Amber describes it as “incredible, crazy, and magic” when she and Matt learned they were pregnant with twins through embryo adoption. In this episode, they share their helpful, inspiring story- highlighting the importance of communication, openness to unique family-building methods, and gratitude for the journey that's brought them closer together. Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

NEDC President Dr. Jeffrey Keenan thinks February's landmark Alabama Supreme Court ruling could lead to a more life-affirming world for frozen embryos. But it won't happen without navigating some complex questions: Does “life begins at conception” include embryos? Are we willing to advocate for more ethical IVF? Can Christian believers unite on a life-affirming approach to fertility treatment? Dr. Keenan walks through some of these vital questions in this special episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.  

Brittany & John once thought Klinefelter syndrome had erased any hope of experiencing pregnancy. Now, they're in awe of God's goodness as Brittany is about to deliver their embryo adoption baby. In this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast, they share their journey, which they call “miraculous & remarkable.” Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Embryo adoption and infertility can be very tough on people who are “planners," like Jenna and her husband. They never planned to be a one-child family, but they are. In this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast, Jenna unpacks an embryo adoption journey of both lasting joy and lingering disappointment. She also describes how God is working through her shattered plans to shape her. May her story bring you comfort, peace, and hope. Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Known as “The Queen of Christian Fiction,” bestselling author Karen Kingsbury has a new movie out- and it's about embryo adoption! Karen joins The Embryo Adoption Podcast to talk about her newly released film Someone Like You (based on her book of the same name). It's a story she believes in so much, she used her life savings to finance it! Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Embryo adoption parents Isaac & Olivia Hall say people have been asking them a lot more questions about embryo adoption and IVF lately. The spark: February's Alabama Supreme Court decision declaring embryos to be human lives. Isaac & Olivia are a natural go-to couple, not only because they've adopted embryos, but because Isaac is a pastor. Hear more about the conversations they're having post-Alabama. Plus, learn from their own journey, which starts with a deeply felt family connection to adoption, in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. 

John & Sarah were prepared for another failure when the embryos in their second NEDC transfer were graded lower than those in their first. Now, they have twins from that transfer! Lots of helpful stuff in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast, including takeaways on overcoming cancer, the importance of having a mentor couple, not putting too much stock in an embryo's grade, and trusting God at a deeper level!  Don't forget to share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

It's easy to feel alone, whether you're an adult experiencing pregnancy failure, or an embryo adoption kid with a different story than your peers. In this episode, NEDC mom Ambre Williams unpacks how community & prayer led her & her husband to peace during their uneven embryo adoption journey. Plus, she shares about her new children's book, aimed at making embryo adoption children (and others born outside traditional means) feel loved & special, not alone. Find this podcast helpful? Spread the word! Share, rate, review, and subscribe.

After an exhausting grind of failed IUIs and IVF, Cristina's fertility doctor recommended she look at other options. That's how she learned about embryo adoption, which resulted in triplets! Her story is packed with practical lessons on everything from trusting your body's signals to taking on the tougher parts of parenting multiples. Be inspired as you learn how her older son's longstanding Christmas wish was answered- three times over! Find this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast helpful? Spread the word! Share, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.            

Travis & Kristen didn't have any fertility issues (they already had four children) but did have a heart to adopt. That desire led them to choose embryo adoption. And although personal and medical challenges complicated their journey, they wouldn't trade the result: Twin sisters who share a special bond that sweetens life for their large family. Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Janae and Clayton had a deeply emotional embryo adoption journey filled with cycles of loss, followed by renewed hope. Along the way, Janae kept an open mind on everything, including choosing embryo adoption (which initially struck her as weird) in the first place, switching from an open to a closed adoption, and even changing her mind on whether to try a third embryo transfer. As she explains in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast, she's glad she did- because it all led to the birth of her second son.  Share, rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Sometimes embryo adoption dads struggle with parental identity. That stems from being the only adult in the process -donor or recipient- without a genetic or biological connection to their child. But shared biology and genetics aren't the only traits that make someone a ‘real dad.' NEDC dad Derek King has worked through those awkward feelings. He has a ton of helpful insights for other EA dads to kick off Season 4 of The Embryo Adoption Podcast.Do you find this podcast helpful? Spread the word! Share, review, like, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Wondering how to talk to your kids about embryo adoption? Trying to find peace amid infertility? Then this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast is a must-listen. Psychologist (and NEDC mom) Dr. Megan Herscher explores healthy approaches to each in our Season 3 finale. 

We're having some fun in this episode! Almost 8 months after their births, catch up with the NEDC babies frozen as embryos for a world-record of nearly 30 years, Timothy & Lydia Ridgeway, as well as their parents Philip & Rachel. This family's looking back on the wild and sometimes hilarious adventure of making global news. Would they do it all again? ... FULL TRANSCRIPT (Please note there may be spelling, grammatical, and factual errors as this transcript was generated by AI.) 00:00 Mark Mellinger Looking back on two world record arrivals. That's what we're doing on this edition of the Embryo Adoption Podcast. I'm your host, Mark Mellinger, and the embryo adoption podcast is brought to you by the National Embryo Donation center. You can find out more about our work by going to embryodonation.org. I'm joined by four guests today, philip and Rachel Ridgeway, as well as Timothy and Lydia. They are the world record holders for the longest frozen embryos to come to birth. I'm sure many of you remember this global news story from last November and December, and they went through the NEDC and we're catching up with them. Doing a little bit of a post mortem here, by the way. This is one family that is busy. They have four older kids besides these two. So I really appreciate you all taking the time. And like I said, if you're not watching the video version, you'll hear them, the kids, the youngest are with us and they are just cute as a button as they are about eight months old as we record this interview.  01:09 Mark Mellinger So let me start here. How are Timothy and Lydia doing? They look like they're doing great. And how is the rest of your family adjusted?  01:17 Rachel Ridgeway Well, they are growing amazingly by God's grace. Their pediatrician has been so impressed with them because when they were born, they were good size, but they were like on the fifth percentile for weight and length, and they've gone up to the 50th. And so their pediatrician couldn't be any happier with their growth and development. And the kids, we all love them. We can't imagine life without them at this point. It's been such a blessing and so much fun. And each of the kids takes turn holding them and caring for them and loving them.  01:48 Mark Mellinger Are you getting sleep? I mean, they should be decent sleepers by this age, right?  01:55 Rachel Ridgeway You would hope. And the pediatrician says, oh, they can sleep through the night now. They weigh a heavy enough. I'm like, yeah, you got to tell them that Lydia is by far the better sleeper. She's pretty low maintenance. Peter put her to bed. She's pretty happy about that. Timothy's our snuggle bug.  02:13 Mark Mellinger He's with Daddy right now. And I think they're both a little fascinated with the computer that you're doing this interview through that's. Okay, let's go talk, first of all, about your experience through the NEDC. We'll start there. You were intentional about selecting embryos that had been here a long time. You wanted to do this.  02:36 Rachel Ridgeway Why?  02:37 Philip Ridgeway So when were thinking through how would we select a profile, we didn't have any sort of characteristic in mind if we want children with similar hair color or eye color or whatever. So we couldn't think of any criteria we would use to select embryos except for, well, just give us the oldest ones, the webs that have been waiting the longest. And so that's what went with.  03:08 Mark Mellinger Because you knew that those embryos were harder to place. I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I'm sort of asking that question. I know you guys share our heart for life. I mean, that's why we're here, is to protect the sanctity and dignity of human embryos. And these children that you're holding were frozen for just a month and a half shy of 30 years, which is just amazing. That was your heart behind this, right? You wanted the embryos that you wanted to give the embryos a shot at life that were likely going to be harder to place.  03:41 Philip Ridgeway Yeah, that was part of it. But also just the fact that each of these embryos is a human being that God has created in his own image, he's given life to, they have value. They're all equally as valuable in our minds. We couldn't think of a way of saying, well, we want some and not others. So rather than selecting some arbitrary criteria, we said we want those that have been waiting there the longest. That have been waiting the longest to be adopted into a family.  04:25 Mark Mellinger Yeah. Lydia's giving Rachel some problems over there. I understand she's getting hungry. That's totally understandable. Let me ask you this. I mentioned that this was big news several months ago. Are you glad that you went public with your story? Would you do it all over again?  04:43 Rachel Ridgeway Oh, yeah. The amount of people that even just our church body getting to know about embryo adoption and everything involved with that and then having it go public, just being able to talk to more and more people about embryo adoption and the sanctity of life and why these kids are just as important as any other kids out there that are in need of families and really just to be able to glorify God and to give him the credit for the fact that he's the one that created Timothy and Lydia. He's the one that sustained them for the 30 years in the freezer and then sustained them in my womb and continues to sustain them and to be able to give him the glory for what he has done and just to give these babies a face because it's such a hard, nebulous idea for people to come to grips with that there are millions of children frozen out there that just need a chance at life.  05:36 Rachel Ridgeway And it's such a strange thought and process that most people have never even heard of. And so to be able to give it that platform so that people can know and understand and want to look into it for themselves, it's a huge blessing for us.  05:50 Philip Ridgeway It's also been helpful, even just for ourselves. It's challenged us to think through the issue of life and what the Bible says about that and how do we evaluate from a biblical perspective things like IVF and infertility. So that's really helped us to sort of codify what we believe and to speak to people about that issue because it's a common thing. And what we found is that very few people who haven't done embryo adoption or even IDF don't know what it is, what it all involves, what the moral implications of it. So it's been helpful even just for us, but also for the people that God's providentially brought into our lives. We've been able to share our story and teach them about embryo adoption and the life that God has given to these children.  06:46 Mark Mellinger Well, that's a key point, is that a lot of people will just rush into, if they have the money IVF when they're going through infertility what you're saying. And I know, by the way, even though you have four older children, you all experienced infertility before this. So this is not something with which you are unfamiliar. It's a sensitive topic for you. It's a very real topic for you. And you're saying even though you had gone through it and I know you did not need to go all the way to IVF. You did not go all the way to IVF, even with that background as pretext embryo adoption even made you stop think further, refine your views on what links you will go to achieve children, on the link between fertility and.  07:41 Philip Ridgeway Faith, and also just how to think through it. There are some people that we encountered that were adamantly opposed to embryo adoption just because it's loosely connected with IVF, thinking that somehow embryo adoption promotes IVF, causes more IVF to happen. That was really something that we wrestled through and thought through and had to formulate arguments in our minds. And it was very helpful in that respect.  08:12 Mark Mellinger I remember having a conversation about that with you two while you were pregnant with them, and that was interesting. It is a question that you run into every now and then, and it's a good, thoughtful question that we're happy to engage. What was it like seeing your story told by media outlet after media outlet all over the world, sometimes very entertaining. Okay, yeah. And I know some of this. What were some of the moments that you found entertaining?  08:50 Rachel Ridgeway I think it was my uncle shared an article and it had the wrong photo on it. So saying our family, but it was actually the previous record holder's family photo. They just used some sort of random twin photo of any twins. And so it was our story. But those aren't our kids. Those are pretty funny or just different things that we realized that very quickly, that different news outlets just play telephone now. We have a couple of interviews in person, but then there's all these articles and you can see the little tweaks. So somehow somebody got something wrong.  09:27 Philip Ridgeway Yeah, they hear that, then EDC is in Tennessee and they just assumed that were in Tennessee. Our location changed from article to article. There was some humor in it, and at first it was surprising, but at the same time, were grateful for the opportunities we talked about that God chose to use us in this way and that he is being glorified in this, that life is being put on display and people are hearing the truth. There was someone from our church that read the CNN article and said, yeah, it ends with the sovereignty of God, that God is the one who ordains life and creates life and preserves life, sustains life. That's been our desire all along, for God to be glorified in this.  10:20 Mark Mellinger And that's what you did. You did it all throughout. I loved how you did it, and you really did it in an articulate and intentional way. It wasn't just sort of generic Hallmark card, glorifying God and praising God. There was some theological weight behind it. And I love that about your story. Yeah. And it was interesting seeing the various places that you lived, whether it was Tennessee or Washington oregon, they could have just thought, I guess, that you were sort of a family that was living out of an RV or something, because it did change occasionally. What were some of the most memorable responses you received from folks? I'm not talking about members of the media. I'm talking about just people who saw your story either in person or online.  11:16 Rachel Ridgeway You've had somebody stop you and go, hey, I know you from high school and I saw your article, I think.  11:23 Philip Ridgeway Yeah, that was at the Burbank Airport.  11:27 Mark Mellinger Is that right?  11:29 Rachel Ridgeway Yeah. Oh, I got text messages from friends and different long distance family members that were like, hey, we saw you people go look at my Facebook feed, and all of a sudden, wait, that's a little bit Rachel. They're on there. We didn't really make it public that were going to do this. We just kind of put it out there. So I think it's quite entertaining for a lot of our church family to see our faces plastered over for a few days and be like, I know those people.  11:57 Mark Mellinger You mentioned the telephone world of the media, how a lot of them will basically lift details that were gathered by somebody else and make it their own. That was one aspect that stood out to you. I think another aspect that stood out is a lot of the media, like local TV stations or online outlets, are owned by the same companies. So basically, if you do something with one station, you can be sending it out to the entire country. That didn't used to be the case. Were there other aspects of working with the media that surprised you from either a positive or negative standpoint?  12:40 Rachel Ridgeway For the most part, I think it was all pretty positive. We didn't really run into any big hiccups or anything. I have to say, I think the Guinness World Record article was quite impressive. I was actually very shocked by that one, thinking that we filled out this long survey question by question for them, and they just took it and they put it out there word for word. And so even with our references to the Lord and his sustaining and all that, they put it out there. I was like, oh, sweet. That's pretty cool.  13:13 Mark Mellinger That was so cool. And it was so cool that I have the plaque hanging across from my office here at the NEDC. You guys were nice enough to let us have like, a replica plaque because you have a plaque there.  13:26 Rachel Ridgeway Yeah, well, they do, I guess.  13:32 Mark Mellinger Right? It's so cool. And it's funny, people do they stop by and notice it all the time and they're like, oh, that was you guys. So they knew about the story, or if they hadn't heard the story, they're like, that is amazing. Almost 30 years. We'll try to get some placards with your pictures and stuff, too, to add to that. So you'll always have a home in Tennessee. Whether the media says you do or not, you'll always be here in a sense. Hey, I'm always interested. And by the way, let me say this. This was largely the experience with some of our other couples who have done massive nationwide publicity. There have only been a couple, but generally we as Christians can sometimes bang on the media and be down on them. And there are some legitimate criticisms there, but I always like to praise them where I can.  14:26 Mark Mellinger And I would say I agree with the two of you that by and large, they were very friendly, very courteous. They did share your Christian viewpoint in most cases, which was very important to you, and we let them know that. So they were very respectful and good to work with, and they usually are in the context of the NEC. So we appreciate those in the media who do it well as we do any profession that's a gift from God. So of all the media coverage, which reporter outlet did the best job telling your story? You mentioned that Guinness did a great job. Was there anybody else who stood out as yeah, this is the one. If I had to point somebody to our story.  15:13 Philip Ridgeway There was the initial article with the Gospel Coalition. We were really satisfied, happy with that. How the author, she did a really good job with that story. Actually, the CNN one were quite impressed with, and were surprised at how well they covered accurately portrayed things that he said. But we also did a local interview with a reporter. Do you remember the station? Reporter's name was Alma, and it was.  15:43 Mark Mellinger With it's hard to remember. I get it.  15:49 Philip Ridgeway Yeah, I can't remember the station because we don't watch local news. But reporter came to our house and just asked us questions and she was really relatable and we watched a story and she just did a fantastic job.  16:03 Rachel Ridgeway Yeah, she really did.  16:05 Philip Ridgeway We had a great experience.  16:06 Rachel Ridgeway Yeah, we definitely had some unique ones. I think we did. It was a podcast, right, for Connecticut.  16:12 Mark Mellinger Oh, I think I remember. I know which one you're talking about.  16:15 Rachel Ridgeway Go ahead. Yeah. And she asked different questions, so that was definitely an interesting interview. She focused more on the fact that Lydia and Timothy's history includes their dad having their biological dad having a diagnosis of ALS and what does that mean? And so that was definitely just a unique one, but it also provided us with the opportunity of really showing how God is in control of all things and that Lydia and Timothy still need to be given the opportunity at life despite the possibilities. And the reality is that any child has the possibility of having anything at any time. And so the idea that there's somehow a greater risk with these guys is very funny because God's in control of all things and so we have nothing to fear because we know that whatever he sends us our way as believers will be for our good and for his glory.  17:10 Mark Mellinger Amen. It's such a great point. I mean, if you're human, you're fundamentally broken and in need of restoration and this side of eternity, something bad's going to happen to you that will take you out. That's just how it is. So there's really no difference, right? That's just how it is. Yeah.  17:35 Rachel Ridgeway In all of human history, there's only been, what, two people that didn't die, right?  17:40 Mark Mellinger Exactly.  17:42 Rachel Ridgeway Yeah, exactly. So you've got a pretty high percentage chance of a Lloyd taking you home.  17:50 Mark Mellinger Are you collecting highlights from that time in a scrapbook or a thumb drive or anything?  17:57 Rachel Ridgeway I wish.  17:57 Mark Mellinger But now you're too busy talk about your other kids, how old they are.  18:03 Philip Ridgeway Well, part of it is being too busy, but also part of it's just like we didn't do this for the flame. That hasn't been a motivating factor for us really at all. We talked about our desire was to point people to Christ and for him to be glorified and so it wasn't about us. But yeah, we do have a few things here and there. Like you mentioned, the plague, Afghanistan. We haven't decided what to do with.  18:37 Rachel Ridgeway You yet, but well, nowadays the Internet, it's like if they want to find out, it's just a matter of googling their names and we'll be able to find all kinds of fun things about them.  18:48 Mark Mellinger And the thing is, it'll proliferate over the years, maybe go in directions that you never saw.  19:00 Philip Ridgeway We also wouldn't have time, even if we wanted to do that sort of thing between, you know, works school, serving at our church. I'm in seminary.  19:09 Mark Mellinger Are you going to seminary?  19:11 Philip Ridgeway Yeah, I'm going a student at the Master's seminary in their MDIF program.  19:17 Mark Mellinger Well, congratulations. Now are you just going to use that to serve more effectively in your home and church or do you plan to sort of switch careers and become a pastor?  19:29 Philip Ridgeway I'm in training to be an elder at our church. So I don't know where God's going to take that, but I primarily just want to be a more effective servant minister of his word. So it's been neat. I've been doing that for the past year with a couple of other guys from our.  19:51 Mark Mellinger How cool. Now that is really great. I was going to see if we can get you guys back. It looks like you have frozen on me, so that's okay. We were pretty much at the end of our time anyway. So I guess I will use this as an opportunity to just wrap up the podcast. We want to thank you too so much, philip and Rachel as well as Timothy and Lydia. They behaved just wonderfully. And if you would like more information about the National Embryo Donation Center and our work, you can find us at embryodonation.org. I'm Mark Mellinger. This has been the embryo adoption podcast.  

After 15 years of marriage with no children, Chris & Rachel suddenly became parents of twins! Find out how sleep training was key to their finding a new routine, and how a stuffed bear not only helped Rachel through her fear of needles but will endure as a sentimental keepsake for their kids. All that, and the role their faith played, in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. Rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts...FULL TRANSCRIPT (Please note there may be spelling, grammatical, and factual errors as this transcript was generated by AI.)  00:00 Mark MellingerIt's a great story of faith amid infertility. And finally, answer in embryo adoption. I'm Mark Mellinger, your host, and this is the embryo adoption podcast brought to you by the National Embryo Donation Center. You can find out more about us at Embryodonation.org. Chris and Rachel Chumita are with me today, and they are joined by their twins. You can see that if you're watching the video version. Ezekiel and Elizabeth. They're about seven months old as we record this, and they are cute as a button family. It's great to see you.  00:36 Rachel Chumita Good to be here.  00:38 Mark Mellinger I love it. And your kids are being so good. We'll see if that continues throughout the whole episode. It may not, and if it doesn't, that's okay. I will try not to keep you too long. I love that you have a shared faith now, but you actually didn't when you got married. Can you two walk me through how that happened?  01:00 Rachel Chumita Sure. I was raised in a Protestant church. Chris was raised in a different faith that he wasn't neither of us actually were believers, although I kind of had a more solid upbringing, if you will, in terms of Christianity and my background. I knew that Jesus was the only way to heaven. But I, again, wasn't a believer. Over the years, I'd ask Chris, over time, you do know that Jesus is the only way to heaven? He'd be like, no, I don't think so. Just one day, God got a hold of my heart, and I just prayed that he would lead us to a church where I would come to really know him and where Chris would come to know him. God answered that prayer and he led us to a church through his providence and where we did both become Christians. Short story.  02:07 Mark Mellinger It's an amazing story, and I should say at the outset, you guys have been married I'm not telling you this, but I'm telling our audience. You've been married for a long time. I mean, you were married for 15 years before you had your children, so it was a long road. How do you think being Christians affected the way that you navigated infertility?  02:31 Chris Chumita I think it helped quite a bit, because when were first married, I have neurofibromatosis, which is a hereditary condition, and since we had no faith in God or in his providence, we decided to have vasectomy very early on in our marriage. After we became Christians, believing in God and His Providence, we decided to have it reversed, and it was considered successful. But then we just couldn't get pregnant. All the tests, the ones we did, just came back. If there's no reason, you're not. We just kind of relied as much as we could on Romans 828 and just went on from there.  03:07 Mark Mellinger Yeah. All things work together for those who love God as Romans 828. Most of our audience would know that. Just in case you don't and that doesn't always mean necessarily in the here and now. It may mean in eternity. So at least we have that comfort. How did you find out about embryo adoption in the NEDC, by the way?  03:29 Rachel Chumita Chris was filling the pulpit for his friend indiana, where we met Jen and Aaron Hannaker. Jen was pregnant with Evie at that time, and so were just talking, and she was like, well, she's pregnant. She's like, now this baby is adopted. And I'm like, Wait, what? I asked her about more of it, and we talked for a little while. On our way back to Ohio, I told Chris, I'm like, okay, this is really cool. What do you think about it? Chris knows that I get really emotional around my birthday every year through the years of infertility. He was like, okay, I'm totally on board, but we're going to get a couple of weeks past birthday and make sure that this is still a desire of yours before we just jump at it. The rest is history. It was still committed after a couple of weeks.  04:24 Mark Mellinger Yeah, and the hammockers are terrific. EVs one of their NEDC babies. They have a couple now. Interesting. You were doing pulpit supply because Chris does have a master's degree in theology, I should say you're not a full time pastor, but you do some pulpit supply. Just doing this pulpit supply over in your neighboring state, Indiana, because you guys live in the Cleveland area. This is how you heard about yes, sir. Embryo adoption. Yes. What was the process of going through the NEDC like? Anything that you'd like to share to prepare other people who are thinking about it?  05:03 Chris Chumita We thought it was just very easy. Any question asked was quickly answered. The process was very straightforward. The home study group went through.  05:12 Rachel Chumita Was Snowflakes, I believe.  05:15 Mark Mellinger Snowflakes family evaluation was very easy.  05:18 Chris Chumita It was not like the horse stories you hear about people going through other adoptions. We really enjoyed the first trip down in Edict. We thought just meeting the whole staff, how they walked you through the whole process was very helpful and relieved any fears you might have had.  05:33 Mark Mellinger Well, that's great to hear. The Snowflakes family evaluation is something that some of our families may be interested in. It's an alternative to a traditional home study. We do have a home study requirement with the NEDC, but the Snowflakes family evaluation, the SFE, is good for two years, which is longer than most home studies, so that can be a good option. Also they'll go anywhere in the country to do it. The big distinction is it is only good for embryo adoption. If you're looking for a more flexible option that's good for both traditional adoption and embryo adoption, you wouldn't want to do the SFE, but it can be a good option if you're only interested in embryo adoption like Chris and Rachel were. Your kids are being so good. I love how especially Elizabeth is looking at the camera and wanting to play with that thing.  06:26 Mark Mellinger Let's talk about them a little bit. I mean, take me to the moment that Ezekiel and Elizabeth were born.  06:34 Rachel Chumita Well, I will say the one thing that was really scary for me were the shots. And so I don't like shots. Chris always has to go with me to my dentist appointments for that shot.  06:49 Mark Mellinger These are the shots to stimulate your cycle so your body's ready to do this. Okay, so before we get to the birth, how did you work through that? That's really practical.  07:00 Rachel Chumita Well, I was scared, but then I thought, okay, it's worth it. What I also did was I got a little stuffed bare, and so I would hold onto it really tight whenever Chris would give me my shots. It was just like a little reminder of why I was getting them done. It kind of made it all worth it in the end. Just kind of that little reminder every time I get my shots, like, okay, this is for what I called it, Booba Bear. My intention was, and still is to pass those bears on to them then for when they have to go through something like a shot. After we found out we had two, we got a second for me to finish my progesterone and oil shots. So I'd hold both of them then. And so now they know. They'll know that's how much I love them, that I went through those shots and Boo Bear helped me, and it can help them.  07:57 Mark Mellinger That's really good and really practical. I love that. Tell me about when they entered the world.  08:06 Rachel Chumita It was a Caesarean section, and yeah, it went really well. They were like, this is your son, this is your daughter. It was just amazing. I was opened up on the table and stuff, but then they got me the babies as soon as possible, and it was just like I didn't ever want to leave them, ever.  08:32 Mark Mellinger Chris? Yeah? Tell me what it was like for you. I mean, you're talking about basically 16 years of marriage with no kids and now twins.  08:43 Chris Chumita Yeah, it's been a big change, but a change for a good especially with twins. When you'd ask someone with twins, so how was the first few weeks? They give you, like, the wide eyed look, and you kind of know what that looks like now. Especially right now, as they're getting order, they're getting mobile. Like, Ezekiel is very close to walking and Lisa's just starting to crawl, and they're interacting a lot more. It's just so much fun. I always say, to highlight my days when I come home from work and I walk in and say, hey, Daddy's home. They both let out a squill and try to run over to you as much as they can.  09:21 Mark Mellinger Well, remember that when they're teenagers. Tuck that away in your mind. It's a sweet moment for right now and enjoy it. It doesn't always last that long. All kidding aside, I mean, they're beautiful kids. If you're watching on the video version, you can see that Elizabeth just had a pleasant smile on her face basically the whole time. Ezekiel has been looking at Daddy most of. Describe their personalities and how they have changed your lives.  09:53 Rachel Chumita Go ahead.  09:54 Chris Chumita Ezekiel is basically just a ham. He's always just smiling and laughing and he hits his landmarks very quickly. He's climbing up on furniture already and everything along those lines and he's just always so happy. I don't know if you can tell in the video, Elizabeth is just a sweetheart, but she has the biggest eyes, like pussing boots, which I know she's going to manipulate us later with.  10:19 Rachel Chumita She's just really mild and laid back and she wants held all the time and she has a little cuddle bug and she just yeah, she's terrified of her brother because he's a bull in a china shop when it comes to his sister.  10:39 Mark Mellinger Have you adjusted to twins life? I mean, I can't imagine having two newborns at the same time, and I know having one is hard. Do you think you've made the adjustment like you've got a routine down?  10:52 Chris Chumita Yeah, especially now that went through sleep training. That's really helped quite a bit.  10:59 Mark Mellinger Sleep training? Really? Tell me about that.  11:03 Rachel Chumita It was rough. We asked a lady who does it. We hired a sleep consultant and so essentially you stay in the room so that they know that you're there, but sometimes you just have to let them cry. It's amazing how quickly because for the first what was that? That was just after six months we started sleep training and so it was amazing for the first six months, every time they'd start to cry, you'd be like, grab them before they wake up their sibling. It was amazing to me how quickly they adapted to sleeping through each other's meltdown. You'd have one like just screaming and the other one would just be fast asleep and so it was an interesting experience. It was intense, but I think we're coming out pretty well on the other side.  11:59 Mark Mellinger Well, it's a great takeaway for people who do have twins. I love your story. You guys have been so good to share it and the kids have been so good. You've held them the whole time and they've been great. I don't want to make it too long. We're about ready to wrap up. Anything else about your embryo adoption experience or journey that you two felt is important and wanted to share?  12:24 Chris Chumita I just think it's what's great about needic is it's such a pro life message. It's an area in the pro life movement, I think, that's very neglected because as Christians, we all believe that life begins its conception and there's hundreds of thousands of babies that just need adopted and need a chance to live life. It's something I wish that more pro life groups and other churches would get behind and help promote it. We all really like, too, how Edith can work with people financially as well and how much more affordable it is than traditional adoption and IVF amen.  13:02 Mark Mellinger It is all of those things. You're right, it is still the corner of both the pro life and pro adoption movements that the church is capital C church is just learning about. Well, no meltdowns. They're just now starting to get a little fussy. It is the perfect time to wrap up this episode. Chris, Rachel and Ezekiel and Elizabeth, I want to thank you all so much. You have a beautiful family and this was so much fun.  13:28 Rachel Chumita Okay, thank you very much.  13:29 Chris Chumita Thank you so much.  13:30 Mark Mellinger If you want to find out more about the National Embryo Donation Center, you can go to our website, embryodonation.org. Again, that's embryodonation.org. I'm Mark Mellinger. This has been the embryo adoption podcast. 

Just what does it mean to choose open embryo adoption through the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC)? It's a common question, and the answer looks different in every situation. NEDC moms Marti Bailey, Bethany Piechowski, and Nina Brenneman are sharing helpful insights in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast.  

You never know just what God will use to touch someone's heart. For Lauren & Joe, a special childcare program called Safe Families eventually led them to a passion for embryo adoption. What followed were challenges: a longer than expected wait, Joe trying to overcome his anxiety about needles & giving shots, grieving the loss of an embryo that failed to thrive. But waiting at the end of it all was the baby boy who's now brightening their home (and this podcast is getting released on his one-year transfer anniversary!). There's so much to glean from their story, which they're sharing in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. 

Jared & Kristi experienced the heartbreak of several embryo adoption transfers with no success. It made no sense to them. They know, this side of eternity, it never will. Yet there's so much to learn from this brave NEDC couple. They're sharing their story to help others, on this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. Rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts....    FULL TRANSCRIPT (Please note there may be spelling, grammatical, and factual errors as this transcript was generated by AI.) 00:01 Mark Mellinger Generally on the embryo adoption podcast, we're sharing stories that turned out well in just about every respect. We want to be very careful and transparent, too, as we describe the ups and downs of embryo adoption to cover absolutely every angle. The truth is, not every story has the happy ending with the neat bow, and we need to talk about that. So that's what we're doing today. I'm Mark Mellinger, your host. This is the embryo adoption podcast brought to you by the National Embryo Donation Center. My guests today are Jared and Kristi Taylor. They have been gracious enough to go down this hard road with us here for today's episode. I can't thank you, too, enough for this. I think it's really important for people who either have gone through embryo adoption and have experienced some of the same feelings that you have and people who are prospective embryo adoption families to know about this and hear about it.  01:02 Mark Mellinger So it's really important. I want to start here, though. Why did embryo adoption initially pique your interest?  01:11 Kristi Taylor We actually have three biological children first, and went the route of oral fertility drugs with the first two. The last one was a total surprise. We just started pursuing a traditional adoption. We looked into traditional adoption for a long time. A bunch of different agencies. Our fertility doctor actually recommended us for embryo adoption, and so I started looking into that. I was on board with it more before Jared was, so I just kind of waited for him to catch up with me. I don't know. Being pregnant, pregnancy is a cool thing. It's a miraculous thing. I think that was part of the draw, I think, to embryo adoption, because it's a neat thing to be able to have babies and your own babies and how to, I don't know, take your prenatals and how to do all the right things with it. And so that was a cool thing.  02:05 Kristi Taylor Adoption has always been in our path, though.  02:07 Jared Taylor Well, I think it gives a different perspective to the traditional adoption, because one traditional adoption is very hard right now, and it's a business. The other thing you get with traditional adoption is you don't for sure know what you're getting. Embryo adoption presented a path that felt like it was more in line with what our standards were, of how were living our own life, and gave us an opportunity to bring children that would be like us and that would have genetics like us that were a little more the environment was a little more controlled than just a wild card.  02:45 Mark Mellinger Definitely a more controlled environment. You guys ended up being one of our favorite couples. You always had a story for us every time you came in the door, and we're always of such good humor, so it's just proof you don't have to have had NADC kids, through the NADC at least, who survived outside the womb to be part of the NADC family, because, Jared and Christie, you very much are. Describe your experience with the NADC.  03:19 Kristi Taylor We love you all. That's part of the frustrating thing about it all is like, everything should have worked out and then it all just became this massive. Well, 2020 was not a good year, I think, for anybody. That's pretty much how I would sum it up. 2020 sank pretty bad, right? We first matched with our first embryo donation family, we adored them. They even had the same names as us. Their babies looked like our babies. It was just meant to be. I think when went in for that transfer, I was a little shocked. I think that was my biggest shock when it didn't work out, because everything was supposed to be and it obviously wasn't. COVID started and I was suddenly homeschooling our three children and that was a disaster. Went in for our second transfer. I remember, well, the week before we left to Tennessee, were actually matched with a baby for this traditional agency were working with.  04:23 Kristi Taylor And were so excited for that. We were still going to go to Tennessee and we had this baby. The day that the mom was supposed to show up here in our state, she didn't come. So then we didn't have that baby. We flew to Tennessee and we landed. I turned my phone on and I had this message from Dr. Keenan saying, hey, something came up. I need you to call me. Here's my cell phone number. Thought, well, this is beautiful. We called him and he said that they went to thaw out the embryos and there wasn't any. He doesn't know what happened to them. We could decide what we wanted to do if we wanted to fly home or go for what was it?  05:01 Mark Mellinger A backup set, right?  05:02 Jared Taylor Yeah, it was anonymous transfer. All these big words, so we wouldn't have the information, we wouldn't have the couple that we had picked out. I believe with each one of them, we actually did zooms with them. At least one of them, maybe two of them. We did zooms prior to actually them accepting us, which is an interesting thing of where they still had control. These ones, we got that phone call and he goes, this is the first time we've ever had it happen here. It's a surprise. We've heard of it only at one other time. This doesn't happen. That night went and we prayed about it. Because of COVID we couldn't change our flight. It wasn't easy to do. We just got up the next morning and we thought, well, we'll just go in and see if any others come across. Our feeling that we think we should do.  05:58 Jared Taylor We found one, and that one was actually successful.  06:02 Kristi Taylor Yeah, for a week. Was it?  06:03 Jared Taylor For a week?  06:04 Kristi Taylor For a couple of days. I don't know what happened with that. I think one stopped growing and then the other one I don't know. Was it a topic? I don't know. All I know is I was getting my blood drawn like every week for the next two months. So that was fun, it was pleasant. I was good relationships with our fulfillment. Went for a third transfer, and I think neither one of us had really high hopes with that.  06:29 Jared Taylor The pessimism set in but the staff at NEDC is just great. Everybody there from the minute you walk in to the minute you leave, and through even the phone calls of the next couple of weeks, they take care of you and they care about you. And you really did. You do feel like it's a family and you want to be a part of it. I think that's why we want to do this today, too, is because even though weren't successful in the way we wanted, we still hope we can still be a part. We've had a few friends that have reached out to us wondering about it, and we've referred them over. It's hard it is to possibly be a blessing to somebody else in their own life when you didn't get it to come through, or hoping at least we can still be of some good.  07:17 Mark Mellinger Well, and you certainly are by doing this. You didn't have to do it, you weren't pressured into it. You wanted to do it after prayerful consideration, and I really respect that. Take me to that moment, because others who go through embryo adoption have been there or may be there. That moment when you realized the ultimate result was not going to be what you wanted, even though the vast majority of couples who come through the NEDC for multiple transfers do have children, you reached the end of the line, and that wasn't going to be your result. What were your thoughts and how did you grapple with that?  08:02 Kristi Taylor Well, I'd have to say ice cream is always like a good route to use chocolate, any of those. Also, I think giving yourself grace and knowing whatever emotion you feel is fine and it's okay and it doesn't matter. I don't think emotions are a bad thing. I think that they're perfect. I think you can let yourself have time to be angry and to be upset with how it should have been. I don't know what are you going to say to it.  08:35 Jared Taylor I think part of it too came down. We're on the West Coast and there's not a direct flight from we're in Salt Lake. There's not a direct flight into Knoxville for us, and so it's a few day event, and with our three kids with their ages. It was taxing on them for us to go and be gone. They were a part of the journey, too. We did not have any secrets from them. They knew what was going on. They knew that were trying to do it, and they got excited about it. And you just come to it. You desire and you want it so bad, but sometimes what may have meant to be and whatever was in the plan, success from our eyes was not success from God's eyes. Unfortunately, he has to allow the things of Earth to happen, too. He's pretty good at allowing agency and the elements to take place.  09:42 Mark Mellinger Was that the hardest part, sharing the disappointment with the children?  09:51 Kristi Taylor No, not really. We have of disappointment in our family anyways, and so it just was like, oh, hey, guess what, guys? I think my hardest part was I thought for sure this is what God wanted us to do, and then it didn't work. I think my hardest part was being like, okay, well, I'll just write this down to my little memoirs, and then when I die, I'll have my book club chat with God and be like, hey, I'd really like to discuss these chapters because what the heck? It doesn't make any sense to me. I think that is what I'm waiting for, because I don't think it will make sense on Earth. It doesn't. Nobody can say anything that will make sense, because it doesn't. I think that is just where that is. It's just in my little memoirs, and I will wait until I am dead.  10:36 Jared Taylor From the husband's perspective, it's really a helpless spot to because you have no control over anything. You can give your opinion, you can give advice, but pregnancy brings along its own set of mindset, and you have to watch your wife go through and prepare to become pregnant. It's IVF transfer, so there's a lot of hormones that are injected and you go through a lot of that. The emotions are real, and it's a difficult spot to try to be supportive and move through it and help everybody just keep going forward.  11:21 Mark Mellinger Are you still glad you adopted embryos?  11:24 Jared Taylor Yeah, I think so. Because even though we don't have a connection with those individuals anymore, I think when we get to the next side, we still will have a connection. I think our sphere of people have grown, if nothing else. We learned some things, as Chris has said, it's not necessarily some things we particularly wanted to learn or whatever want anybody to have to go through, because it challenges you as to whether you feel like you succeeded in life or not. I think it's definitely been an experience, that's for sure.  12:07 Mark Mellinger Yeah. My devotion last night was a Tim Keller reading on job, and it was really speaking to what you both have said. Sometimes when we suffer and it seems to make no earthly sense, we're going through the same thing that Job went through. God never revealed the reason to him of his suffering. At least it's not recorded in the book of Job. But he did have a purpose. He did have a plan. Job just didn't see the plan. That's where you two are right now when it comes to embryo adoption. That's where we all are, through various struggles and trials in our lives, right? These things that it seemed to be like, why would this not work? What the heck? What's going on? At least we have that assurance of knowing there is a plan and we'll know someday, like you said, Christie, but we don't see the plan now.  13:07 Mark Mellinger We just have to put our trust in the fact that someday we will. I want the two. If you look at the NADC success.  13:15 Jared Taylor Rate from our first transfer to the third transfer, the organization success rate shot, if I remember right, it went from like on the first one. I remember asking Dr. King, what are our odds? And he basically said, flip a coin. That's about where we're at right now. From after that third one and even to now, it looks like it's more in the 70% to 80%, depending upon the cycle.  13:44 Mark Mellinger Now we have had many that have had that success rate. Not everyone does. You still have your more around 50% and I think we've had even one or two that were lower. One thing I like about working here is we never want to embellish our press clearings. We want to be honest and straight shooters with people. You are right, Jared. The vast majority of our cycles, it seems like the rates have only gone up over the past couple of years, but not all of them are that way. It's certainly not a guarantee, but yeah, I know what you're saying. It increases the frustration, right?  14:32 Jared Taylor It does.  14:33 Mark Mellinger What would you say? Okay, talk to somebody who is just going in on the front end of embryo adoption when couples are doing this, understandably and there's validity to this, they're excited, they're dreaming and hoping and thinking of the possibilities of having children. What would you say to someone who's just on the front end? This possibility something they need to keep in the back of their mind the whole way? What would you two advise?  15:10 Kristi Taylor I don't think so. I don't know. I don't want to live my life waiting for the worst thing to happen. I mean, I don't want to every time I sit down to eat, think I'm going to get food poisoning or get in your car and today's the day I'm going to get in a wreck. It's possible. It's probably going to happen, but it I don't want to live my life like that. Pregnancy is an exciting thing and I think you should be excited for it, and I think that have a positive attitude about it. If it doesn't work, I mean, ice cream again, is always helpful. Put some plugs in and see if we get endorsed. I think it's always good to choose happiness, but also to give yourself grace for whatever emotion does come your way.  15:54 Jared Taylor I agree. The same way she uses some of the same references we use. Car accidents happen all the time. Bad things happen. In reality, if you're a couple that's coming to NEDC or that you're looking at adoption, you've probably been on a pretty rough road anyway. Adoption is not usually anybody's first choice. You always want to twerk, and luckily we had three biological kids, but then weren't able to have anymore, and we just felt prompted that adoption was part of it, and so that's why we just felt that we should continue to look, you can never know something if you don't go for it. If you've been put on the path to even explore the NEDC, there's probably some powers behind it, and it's not something you should go in just thinking it's going to be a perfect road. I'm sure you guys have success stories that they come in, they have their first initial consult, everything looks great, they come back for the next visit.  16:51 Jared Taylor It works. Their kids are born perfectly at 40 weeks and there's not any complications. That's just not how life works the majority of the time. If you're on the front of it, go for it. The worst that can happen is not the worst thing ever. Everything's overcomeable.  17:16 Mark Mellinger Yeah. Well said. How has going through embryo adoption affected your relationships with each other, your kids and family and your faith?  17:29 Kristi Taylor Well, I actually had fun going to Tennessee with just Jared. It was like our little kid free vacations. We talk about the different places we used to go eat, and that was fun. I think that it helped our kids that hard things happen to everybody, so I think that they've grown a lot. I mean, they were just a little when were doing all these different things, and I think it helps them have compassion for other people when they're having hard things happen to them because they realize, oh, yeah, it does happen, but we can get through it. I'm still waiting on my book club chat with God. I think there are some parts that are really good and some parts that I just don't even address yet. There how is your relationship?  18:16 Jared Taylor I think it took us to a different level that we had to be to. It was it was a blast. I mean, why in Knoxville? Make sure you go to Calhouns. The best Blazer are everything in the.  18:30 Mark Mellinger USA says it right on the sign.  18:33 Jared Taylor Yes. It was great, and we loved it. We kind of had our little routine that we got into. Unfortunately, we did have to go four times. And we had talked to Dr. King, and we probably could have done some things to have one more shot, but it just didn't feel like it was the right thing for us to do at that point. It pushed our relationship to different limits, and it makes it so that other things that come up in normal day to day sure are miniscule compared to some of the stresses that went through with that. We've now ultimately we end up getting into foster care. We adopted two little boys, and I think it's made us appreciate those.  19:19 Mark Mellinger Kids just more, talk about that journey. I mean, that's where I wanted to end it. I think that's what everybody who's listening to this is going to wonder. Was your family building journey totally over after being done with embryo adoption? You're saying no, were still about helping the most vulnerable we're going into the foster care system.  19:42 Kristi Taylor Well, I was ready to call it quits, but no, we keep going. We renewed our home city again, and we had with another agency, and we had all the whole mess of situations with traditional adoption. Probably seven months later, I was telling Jared, I was like, let's just look into foster care. I don't want to adopt from foster care, but we have a lot to offer, and our kids had a lot to offer. We got certified really quickly, and we started getting all these phone calls from case workers. Jared and I looked at each other like, what are we doing? This is really heavy stuff.  20:21 Jared Taylor Including we had a traditional adoption that fell through, too, that were actually on our way to the airport. The difficult part about traditional adoption is, like I had said earlier, it's a business. On our way, we got a phone call that the birth mom's mom had gotten involved and she wanted money. She didn't care about anything else, and she put a demand out for some money. We turned around and came back home and walked away from it. About two weeks later, were matched with two little boys that we ultimately ended up adopting. Now, granted, as Christie had said, when we started embryo adoption, it took me a long time to get on board. This time she told me, hey, we should try foster care. I was a quick, hard no because we had pretty well told God that were done. We had come to the limits.  21:18 Jared Taylor We couldn't take the stress with our kids. Our youngest, I think, was five when we started all this, or four. Our oldest was seven or eight. I was a pretty well set no. We prayed about it and we told him, no, this is not it. He very clearly answered back that were to do something and I think were one of the fastest approvals in the state for foster care. And it went very quick.  21:46 Kristi Taylor These little boys were looking for their home too. The funny thing about it is they look exactly like Jared. The ones that I bear look like Jared. The ones that we adopt look like Jared. His genes are very strong in this place. Now we have five kids and I drive a Suburban and there's no more. It's sweet.  22:07 Mark Mellinger How old were your foster adopted children when you adopted them? How old is everybody now in the family?  22:16 Kristi Taylor So we've had them for a year. Our oldest daughter, she's eleven and a half. We have a nine year old and a seven year old.  22:24 Jared Taylor Yes.  22:25 Kristi Taylor The ones we just adopted, our older one just turned five and then the baby is a year and a half.  22:31 Mark Mellinger Oh wow. Still a baby in the house as well.  22:35 Kristi Taylor Crazy. Yes.  22:36 Mark Mellinger Wow. Yeah. One and a half to nine and a half. That's a great joyous home of seven and five of them kids.  22:44 Jared Taylor That's awesome.  22:44 Mark Mellinger Now is your family building journey done or do ?  22:49 Kristi Taylor I mean our friends, our foster friends joke with us that I could drive like a twelve passenger van and I probably could but I don't think I want to. Also knowing us, I mean we can't ever say this is how it's going to go because then somebody just laughs and says, no it's not. I just tread lightly with what we say is going to happen in the future. Our daughter has four brothers and she really wants a sister. That's nice. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. I feel so old and so tired and so happy and we have five kids and we've reset to a baby again and so I think that I don't know what the future is. I'm sure it'll be good. I'm sure it'll be busy and messy.  23:41 Jared Taylor One thing in our life is we've never set specific locked in goals. We have our ultimate goals. Obviously we plan to be married for time and for all eternity. We want our family to be healthy but we don't ever lock in. This is the only way it's going to go for us. That's how were able to come upon the NADC is because we've kept our life flexible and open. That's how we've also adopted these two kids out of foster care because we've allowed ourselves to stay instruments in God's hands. Because the minute you start saying yes or no when we first got married and we start talking about how many kids do we want? I came from a family of four. Christie's a family of five. For a while three kids looked really great. A few late nights lately with a baby screaming a lot.  24:30 Jared Taylor Three kids really seemed like a really good idea. Again, I would say our kids are well traveled. They've flown a ton, in fact. It's unfortunate, but all three of our kids actually are Medallion members on Delta because we like to travel so much. Now we've got two extra kids that it's. More work, but it's been great. We talk about all the time, if we only had 3, may would do this, but at the same time, then when I came home to prepare for this tonight or today, our five year old came and jumps in your arms and just gives you a daddy. I love you so much. It just puts you into, this is what we're supposed to do. If somebody's sitting out there on the fence and NEDC wasn't in your plans, go for it.  25:20 Mark Mellinger It's priceless. Well, I love that. Your happy ending, it may not have come with us, but it did come. You have your children that you're supposed to have asterisk maybe more. But happy ending for now. And I love that. Again, I'm so thankful to you too, for sharing this hard part of your journey. It's going to help so many people. We also want to thank all of you for listening. If you want to find out more about the National Embryo Donation Center, just go to our website. It's embryodonation.org. Embryodonation.org. I'm Mark Mellinger, and this has been the embryo adoption podcast. 

Embryo adoption mom Savannah Hansen once thought writing books was a childhood dream she'd just forget about. Then she saw the need for more children's books to serve the adoption and embryo adoption communities. So she started, as they said in the old days, putting pen to paper. (Digital keystrokes to a phone app just doesn't have the same ring, does it?) The result: Two children's books you need to know about. Learn all about them as Savannah joins us for this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. (Time stamps below) Rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. :33 Savannah's own embryo adoption journey with the NEDC 2:10 Describing Declan, her first NEDC baby 3:25 Does Declan “get” that Savannah is pregnant with his NEDC sibling? 4:18 When Savannah decided she wanted to write children's books, and why she chose to focus on embryo adoption 8:30 Describing her adoption-specific book: The Greatest Gift 10:08 Describing her book aimed at helping children feel loved: The Miracle of You 13:20 How the books went from manuscripts to getting published 20:00 How people have responded to the books

Perry & Sydney went from being told to stop their medications (i.e.: their pregnancy was over)… to holding their miracle daughter. Their journey in between, virtually the whole time, was filled with anxiety. Hear how deeply they were shaped by infertility, and learn from what they did as they struggled to find contentment and a sense of certainty, in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. (time stamps below)Rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. :56 Sydney remembers when she was told to stop taking her medications after her frozen embryo transfer (FET), then took a pregnancy test anyway 5:30 What their conversations with the NEDC and its medical partners were like during the time of waiting to see if a pregnancy would be established 7:45 What it was like for Perry to play a support role during this ‘holding our breaths' situation 11:33 How the rest of the pregnancy went once it was firmly established 16:30 The guilt Sydney felt while lamenting her difficult pregnancy 18:25 What the moment was like when Marlee was born 22:30 What parenting has actually been like compared to what Perry & Sydney expected 26:20 What the relationship with their donor family has been like 27:45 How infertility has changed them 33:20 How God formed Marlee before Perry & Sydney even met 35:45 Is going back to the complicated emotions of infertility helpful or unhelpful?

Life throws us curve balls. For Jay and Elizabeth, the result was a family-building journey that showcases God's variety and God's provision. From a biological child to an embryo adoption baby, their story has it all (including how they adopted without debt!). It's our prayer that this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast will leave you -like them- recounting the goodness of God. (Time stamps are below.) Rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. 1:15 How they envisioned their family taking shape when they got married 4:30 Learning they wouldn't be able to have biological kids anymore, how their church became a great resource as they turned to adoption 6:45 What it means to be part of an adoption-minded church 11:25 Emotional recovery from loss, how the infant adoption process worked for their older son Liam & how they raised $ for it 18:10 The difficulty of waiting for infant adoption, the joy of seeing it finally happen                22:15 How embryo adoption came onto their radar 25:00 What their journey with the NEDC looked like 31:30 What the matching process was like  35:00 What it's been like having NEDC baby Nathanael join their family 37:15 How they found out they were having a son 39:45 What they hope others see when they look at their family 40:40 How God has shaped their souls through embryo adoption

Madison got pancreatitis (twice!) and COVID while she was pregnant with Pia & Judah, her embryo adoption twins. That, combined with extended NICU stays for each baby, made Madison & Toby's road to parenthood a taxing one. But they'd do it all again to experience the deep parental love consuming them now. Gain valuable insights from their story, from a case of nerves on the day of their frozen embryo transfer to what it was like carrying multiples, in this episode. (Time stamps are below.) Rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. 1:45 Peace, then a sense of nervousness before the frozen embryo transfer (FET) 3:30 What the moment was like when they learned they were having twins 6:10 What the home stretch of Madison's difficult pregnancy was like 9:50 The “magical moment” of delivering their twins, Pia & Judah 13:15 How it feels to finally be parents, how enduring NICU stays of several weeks actually strengthened Madison & Toby as parents 16:00 Their strong relationship with their donor family and how the donors have encouraged them 19:15 What they wish they'd known about embryo adoption going into the process 21:05 How Madison & Toby leaned on their relationship with God for support during their entire journey 

Secondary infertility sent Arleta into the throes of depression, which sent her to YouTube, of all places. And through that, God led her & Owen to double blessings. How fitting that they arrived on Thanksgiving! (“Two turkeys,” their older son jokes.:)) They're telling their story in this episode (time stamps below). Rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.  1:05 Struggles with secondary infertility, including fibroids, miscarriage, failed IUIs and IVF 4:05 How Arleta found out about the NEDC online, while battling depression 5:30 Owen's initial hesitancy about pursuing embryo adoption 7:20 Arleta describes her experience of doing embryo adoption with the NEDC 9:30 Arleta describes the arrivals of twins Zion & Zuri, who were born on Thanksgiving 13:10 Owen on what it's like having newborn twins in the home 14:35 How older sibling Josiah is adjusting to being a big brother 15:15 What they wish they knew about battling infertility before they started the embryo adoption process

God opened Graham and Libby's door to parenthood through the prayers of their foster child, and the work of a family concerned with saving a vulnerable young life. From there, the story only gets wilder… and more beautiful. God has walked them through a child's cerebral palsy diagnosis, embryo adoption, and building a close relationship with their NEDC donor family. Along the way, He's refined Graham and Libby, and helped them see His goodness in the hardest moments. Let their story speak to your soul. It's our debut episode for Season Three of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. (Time stamps are below.) Rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. :55 Starting the adoption process started after encountering unexplained infertility 2:05 How their first adoption coincided with the prayer of their foster child 4:00 Amazing story of how their daughter, Macy, had her life saved by a praying family & was placed in their home through a special connection 9:15 Finding out Macy had cerebral palsy 14:30 When they began considering embryo adoption and why they chose the NEDC 15:44 How their family expanded through NEDC embryo adoption, adding Gideon and Judah 18:35 How the family adjusted to having embryo adoption twins and an older special needs child 22:40 Coming back to the NEDC for another child, who turned out to be their son, Cub 25:30 The great relationship they have with their NEDC donor family, including meeting several times in person 34:45 Is their family complete? 36:40 How building their family has grown their relationships with God

“It's not like God's just going to drop a check in our lap,” Naomi thought. Then, actually, He did, through some generous friends who -as they handed them the check- told her and Michael, “This is for you to one day hold a baby in your arms.” We're wrapping up Season Two of The Embryo Adoption Podcast with Michael and Naomi's encouraging story of the special gift that enabled them to pursue embryo adoption (and now has them holding not just one, but TWO baby boys in their arms!). So much good, insightful stuff here. Some helpful time stamps are below. Rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.  :40 How their story started when they were little kids, even continuing through Michael's family's long time away doing missionary work in Turkey 4:14 When they encountered infertility and learned about embryo adoption 8:30  How a generous, unexpected gift from friends enabled them to pursue embryo adoption 10:20  Michael and Naomi's response to the gift 15:00 How they saw embryo adoption as a ministry, and how plugging into the NEDC brought them into a story bigger than themselves 17:00 What most stood out about their experience with the NEDC 20:00 Their advice for future couples going through the NEDC embryo adoption program 23:20 How they gave birth to twin boys from two different donors originating from the same embryo transfer 24:25 What pregnancy was like and how their sons have changed their lives 28:00 How they chose the boys' names and what they mean 31:00 How they'll talk to their sons about embryo adoption

It's incredibly important for families going through embryo adoption or embryo donation to have a “safe space” where they can connect, ask questions, swap stories, and share information. That's why the NEDC Embryo Adoption/Donation Group on Facebook is such a blessing. If you've walked either route with the NEDC, or are currently in process, you should join! In this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast, administrators Bethany Piechowski and Julie Garber take a deep dive into what the group's all about and how it can make a difference for you. Some helpful time stamps are below: :53 History of the group and how it formed 2:25 Purpose of the group 5:41 How administrators work to make sure only people who meet the criteria are accepted into the group 7:21 Most common topics discussed among members in the group 9:33 How God has worked in beautiful ways through the group 12:46 What the group is not for 15:06 Why it's important to have a “safe” discussion space outside the official NEDC purview 20:46 How & why administrators of the group maintain a connection to the NEDC Like what you're hearing? Rate, review, and subscribe to The Embryo Adoption Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Jason & Jen have a heart for the vulnerable. That's led them to explore both foster care/adoption and embryo adoption. In fact, they're doing both at the same time! Here's their journey, which gives real hope to those of you who may feel called to both, but wonder if you have the capacity to handle it all. Below are some helpful timestamps::36 Jason & Jen on the six children they've fostered (three of whom they've adopted) 2:10 How their faith informs their heart for orphan care & adoption 5:15 Learning to handle the difficult emotional aspects of fostering children 8:14 How embryo adoption came onto their radar and why they wanted to do it11:11 How Jen's pregnancy is going 13:57 Were they ever worried they couldn't handle foster care & embryo adoption? What would they say to others with that concern? 16:22 Similarities in the ways foster care & embryo adoption spoke to their hearts 19:54 What does the future look like for them in terms of adoption?

Open embryo adoption can be a beautiful thing. This episode gives you a firsthand glimpse from embryo recipients David & Laura George and their embryo donors Gerard & Nicole Straka. Below are some helpful timestamps:2:00-3:51   What factors were important to adopters David & Laura in the donor selection process 4:04-5:28  How donors Nicole & Gerard's fertility journey played out 5:51-10:33  Nicole & Gerard on how they agonized over what to do with their frozen embryos, and how a canceled credit card saved their embryos' chances at life outside the womb. 11:27-16:39  What the mediation process was like for the open adoption 17:20-18:00  What it was like for the donors to see their embryos results in babies born 18:42-22:33  How David & Laura felt when their children were born 23:20-29:15  What their open relationship looks like today 29:53-30:40  What Colt, the donors' teenage son, thinks of the open adoption relationship 

If you choose to do an open embryo adoption through the National Embryo Donation Center, how do you work out contact with the family on the other end of the match? The answer: Through something called an Open Donation Agreement, or ODA. Here's your chance to learn all about that. Plus: Why do adopting NEDC families need to have their home studies reviewed? Lauren Wilson and Amy Ferguson from our partners at Flourish Consulting LLC are giving detailed insight into these parts of the process in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. 

Ben and Nazli wish they would have learned about embryo adoption a decade earlier than they did. It could've saved them a lot of heartache. But they've accepted that God had His reasons for letting the timing of their journey work out as it did. In this episode, meet them and their miracle baby Kavi, and benefit from their takeaways about finding hope, wholeness and strength amid the turmoil of infertility.

If you've experienced the trauma of infertility, pregnancy loss, or the loss of a child, Blessed Brokenness is a tremendous resource that could prove to be a great source of comfort and support. In this episode, meet the co-founder as well as an NEDC embryo adoption couple helping lead the ministry.

As they walk the road of embryo adoption, Todd and Glory are being very intentional about selecting embryos less likely to be picked. Learn more about the different types of special consideration embryos available through the National Embryo Donation Center, along with the factors that helped this family make its choice. Glory, who grew up in a missionary family, also explains how this desire to help the most vulnerable took root through the deep impressions formed by what she saw in an overseas orphanage.

NEDC Family, we're inviting your personalized prayers for embryo adoption couple Ken & Yuliya and their extended family in Ukraine. Ken & Yuliya join Mark to share how the war in Ukraine is affecting them and their relatives in this special edition of The Embryo Adoption Podcast. 

In this episode, Casey unpacks how a Google search led her to embryo adoption, describes the process of transferring a "clump of cells" that are now her 8-year-old son, and shares how her infertility journey has moved her to help lead a mentoring program for women going through crisis pregnancies.

Jeremiah & Carrie felt their hearts being pulled toward embryo adoption. But before taking the leap, they wisely sought counsel from trusted voices who'd already walked the path. In this episode, Jeremiah & Carrie unpack their journey, including some of the unique challenges and blessings of adopting embryos as Asian Americans. Plus they have some exciting news to share!

Embryo adoption is not just an infertility treatment. It's a calling. In this episode, you'll meet Alex and Candice. They chose embryo adoption through the National Embryo Donation Center even though they already had several children and never encountered fertility problems. It's an excellent window into the missional mindset that motivates many of the large, fertile families who choose to do embryo adoption.

In this Season One finale of The Embryo Adoption Podcast, you'll meet Chloe, adopted as an embryo and now 15.5 years old. Find out how she feels about how she came into the world, her advice to other young people adopted as embryos, what she believes her parents did well, and how adoption bonds her with her siblings. Plus Chloe offers a little insight into everyday teenage life and talks about her possible future career plans. You'll love this inspiring and insightful conversation with one of the "older" NEDC kids!

How long does the embryo adoption process take? How soon can I get my first appointment? And how long after that until my frozen embryo transfer? We get these questions all the time. In this episode, National Embryo Donation Center team members Christa Carter & Kelley Seymour thoroughly unpack the answers. They also explain variables that can potentially lengthen or shorten the process, and outline some of the factors you can control.

Meet Patrick, who didn't let the potential roadblock of a Hepatitis B-positive blood test stop him and his wife from donating their embryos through the National Embryo Donation Center. This conversation could reshape your thinking about special consideration embryos, whether you're donating or adopting. You're going to love this guy and his heart for life!