Thaw Your Baby: The Embryo Adoption Blog

As a cub newspaper editor, I had a lot to learn. This proved especially true when it came time to coach the paper's only reporter,  who happened to be perhaps 30 years my senior. You can probably guess what happened next: differences of opinion. These differences are common to any hot-button issue, and that includes embryo adoption, as I'll explain in a moment. Allow me to set the stage. Back at my first real newspaper job, a woman had been arrested on suspicion of hitting and killing a construction worker while driving drunk. We knew about the story early and had the opportunity to send our reporter out to the scene. This would make any decent person uncomfortable. But as a reporter, your role is to understand the story, treat everyone involved with the greatest respect and share what you can--as dispassionately as you can--with your audience. Well, our reporter didn't agree with me or my publisher. She didn't want to go. In the weeks that followed, a common ...

I wrote earlier this week about funding your embryo adoption. So I felt compelled to share a brief post on this article, about the cost of raising children, at Fatherly.com  by Dave Baldwin. The premise of the article is that even though some costs, such as food, have fallen precipitously in the past several decades, other costs have risen. Baldwin points the finger at child care, education and health care as the three most obvious areas where prices have climbed and will continue to pose challenges. Those points are well taken, and depending on where you live or what health challenges your children may face, they are likely especially pronounced. Yet it bears noting that children don't have to be all that expensive, barring catastrophe . I'm no financial planning expert, and I'm sure our family's expenses will grow as our children age. I certainly hope that's the case. All along, we've been praying that our children will reach adulthood. Part of the com...

How often do we mentally characterize our days as living the nightmare while publicly declaring we are living the dream? There's no need to varnish the truth. Politicians have a corner on that market. Live with bruises. Admit when you are hurting. Ask for help. Complain if you must. Celebrate when you can. If you had a bad day, say so. If your feet hurt, stop walking for a minute and throw them on the ottoman. (Literal throwing not advised; "placing" is probably best.) This afternoon, I attended to half a dozen phone calls from the home office. I had to beg mercy from my mentor, who covered for a schedule conflict. Meanwhile, Phoebe dozed in her room and Ezra rolled around in his bed. He didn't nap, but he minded his manners and hopefully snatched a little rest. The older boys arrived home and I poured circle crackers into plastic bowls while staging a conference call and troubleshooting through some technical issues. It seemed like an epic battle -- her...

One of the reasons embryo adoption stood out to Julie and I from the beginning is the price tag. In general, it is more affordable than other types of adoption. What's more affordable? All told, we spent approximately $14,500 on our adoption journey. This includes expenses such as: Adoption agency fees (e.g. application phase, drawing up the contract between your family and your placing family, the matching process, etc.) Home study Embryo shipping Embryo transfer Pre- and post-transfer fertility clinic visits plus fuel to/from (our clinic was located about 2 hours from our home) You can dig into the numbers in more detail by viewing this infographic for our agency, Nightlight® Christian Adoptions , or by viewing this breakdown from the Embryo Adoption Awareness Center. The center also has put together a webinar on the cost topic, which I've embedded below. To be clear, these costs assume a successful pregnancy that is carried to term. Recent research -- admitt...

In first grade, I turned my journal into a book depicting scenes from my young life. I titled it "Little House in the Big City" and made it official by writing the title in permanent marker on the gold spine. The cover had a picture of a droopy-eared golden retriever against a red background. OK, so the title and the cover didn't exactly line up. Work with me here. Today, I have a different and arguably more exciting announcement. My first real book publishes April 1, 2019, from Carpenter's Son Publishing , and I couldn't be more thrilled because of the content. This project has a singular mission: Help parents discover, learn about and consider embryo adoption as they build their families. It is titled "Frozen, But Not Forgotten"**. Each chapter guides parents through the process Julie and I encountered, including making initial inquiries with adoption agencies, debunking myths about stolen babies , explaining why a fertile couple spends month...

I come from a long line of apologists. By which I mean, we apologize and express regret for many if not most of the things we do, most days of the week. Perhaps you know people like this. As a parent, I have come to realize that this approach is largely a waste of time and energy. Both of those resources are in short supply. Who cares what other people think about your decisions? It's tough to critique people who act with integrity and within the framework of their faith. For example, tonight my energy is waning. Julie and I just completed our monthly budget. It is prime-time entertainment, let me tell you. I'd like to keep on pushing forward on my manuscript. That big announcement I've been promising is coming any day now. I'm beyond excited. It pains me that my eyelids are drooping. Microsoft Word will be around tomorrow, just as it is today. But tonight, I am saying: No. I've heard it's a complete sentence . You have my permission to say "n...

Last night, I awoke to the sound of rain pounding the sides of the house, thunder pealing, and hail nicking the windows. The storm seemed to be escalating itself into a frenzy. One of the boys wandered into our room -- Titus, I think? -- and Julie asked whether I thought we should bring the other children downstairs. I hemmed and hawed. I couldn't totally gather my thoughts, it being about 1 a.m., and I didn't think the storm seemed particularly out of the ordinary. Eventually, Julie and I marched upstairs. She gathered the remaining boys, all of whom rolled into our bed a la this scene from "If A Body Meets A Body," one of the greatest Three Stooges episodes of all time: I gathered Phoebe, who enjoyed some late-night snuggles with her mommy as her brothers tossed and turned and I admired it all from the foot of the bed. Like sardines in a storm, our boys packed tightly together and survived until things had died down. Then, we marched everyone back up the...