I'll just list a few...
What are the costs compared to an infant adoption?
Less expensive. There is an excellent blog post about it on Embryo Adoption Awareness
For us, it was the cheaper end of the $10,000-$15,000 spectrum. But choosing open adoption adds to the expense. In many cases it's actually less expensive than IVF.
How long can they be frozen?
A long time! Wiggler is 15 this month. He or she was frozen March of 1998! Yep, that's right, there's a 15 year old in my womb. In 2010 a baby made headlines being born from a 20 year old embryo
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| Two of our 14 year old embies were implanted in November |
How many embryos are waiting for adoption?
I don't know an exact figure. NEDC told us that they generally have around 100 sets at any given time (each set is from the same bio. parents, so all embryos in a given set are genetic siblings. The 15 embies we adopted are one set). About 50% of them are open adoption embies, and 50% closed. We went closed and we had over 90 profiles to choose from!
NEDC was the agency we found with the most. But there are many agencies, even a lot of local clinics, with donation/adoption programs.
Can you choose the appearance closest to you?
Yes. At least at NEDC, they give you a page listing hair and eye color, skin tone, height, weight, profession, heritage, etc. Then you choose from those single page listings which sets of embies you want more info on. We chose 5, I believe, and we got about 10 pages on each. Listing health history, parents tastes, hobbies, and health histories of any babies born from this set.
We ended up choosing the parents who were the most like us, both in physical appearance and in hobbies and likes/dislikes.
There were other questions, and please feel free to ask any that you may have. We are so excited about embryo adoption and our little Wiggler (and his siblings!) we want to share it with the world! :)
Our adoption agency (Christian Family Life Services) told us that once we adopt, we become ambassadors for adoption. So true!
Wow! That's amazing that your little Wiggler had been frozen 15 years and is now alive and growing in your womb! So cool!
ReplyDeleteI'm really in awe of it, too! Dr Keenan said it was among the oldest embryos that had resulted in a successful pregnancy. But the other 12 will be older when we transfer them!
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