Embryo Adoption :: McCullough, Party of 8!

Our final contracts came in today, so we are now the legal owners of 6 precious embryos!! I went from praying for a baby, to praying for my 6 babies! :) 

Legally, there are no laws that specifically govern embryo adoption agreements, and the current position of the courts is that embryos are property. The contract that we signed with the genetic family is actually a transfer of property and a relinquishment of the donors' parental rights {rather than an adoption agreement}, but our contract does include additional adoption language. The law {at least in Texas} does state that any child born through embryo donation is the legal child of the birthing parents, not the donor parents.

So in the eyes of the law, we own the embryos, but {we believe} in the eyes of God, we are already the parents of these tiny lives. Each embryo is a unique individual created by God, and we are so excited to provide an opportunity for life for each one of them.

So yes- that means that we could potentially have 6 children to raise. And because we will transfer 2 at a time, that also means that we could potentially have 3 sets of twins {!}. Are we crazy? Maybe a little, but we know that each of these little lives is in God's hands. And for whatever reason, He has chosen us to be their parents, regardless of whether or not we get to actually meet and raise all 6.

We know the percentages, and we have been told that it is not likely that we will give birth to all 6. But we will absolutely be praying for all 6 of our babies to make it. There is a chance that not all of them will survive the thawing process, not all of them will implant, or that some of them could meet Jesus before we get a chance to meet them. But we have been entrusted with these tiny ones, so we will do everything in our power to keep them safe and offer them the best chance at life.

I bought this living locket with 6 unique snowflakes to represent our snowflake babies. I plan to wear it until all of our babies are no longer frozen. So if you see me wearing snowflake jewelry in the dead of summer...you'll know why ;)