The Journey Home Has Begun

Today was implantation day. Things went really well, all three embryos survived the thaw. So we were able to have all 3 put in. There is still no guarantee on how many will take. The doctors are hoping for no more than 2 to lower risks, but we are confident that God will bless us with the family we are supposed to have and the strength and wisdom to raise them. Thank you everyone for your support, we feel so loved.

This is it!

Hello Friends,

Exciting news.  We are heading out in seven minutes to go to Seattle where we will have our adopted embryos implanted!

Saturday morning at 11:45 Odessa will get pregnant. The whole procedure will take about 10 -15 minutes.  Then we will have to have a very relaxing day, want to give the embryos a chance to get attached to the womb lining.

We would like to thank Jon and Jessica for letting us stay at their place in Seattle, John and Kelly for taking our oldest to a cross country meet while we are gone, and Greg for staying at the house and keeping the animals alive!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel.  Especially pray for our babies as they thaw and 'wake up'.

God, in whom 'we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28), bless our little ones with safety.  We know that "in [your] hand is the live of every creature" (Job 12:10) and that You desire to knit and build life in a way pleasing to You.  My Father God "who forms [people] in the womb...maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by [Yourself] (Psalm 139:13) please grant us Your continuing favor and peace "which transcends all understanding" (Phil 4:7).  God, guide the doctors and nurses, hold their hands and their minds, keep them focused.  Give us strength, give us Yourself.  Thank you.

The Kershner's

what we know about our future kids

In May we were able to view profiles of embryo banks up for adoption at Overlake Reproductive Health.  We knew we wanted to “empty” a bank and bring closure to the family who opted to store these babies.  We will never meet the people who chose to have these children created but we respect their choice to give these children a chance.  Because of this reason, we only looked at the banks the clinic had on hand with 3 or less embryos….which brought it down to 2 banks.  After reading both profiles, we both choose the same bank.

Reading the profiles was a surreal experience.  The massive document contained everything from what medications the genetic parent’s grandfather took to which celebrity he/she most looked like.  From reading the profiles we learned about the genetic parents education levels, their careers, hobbies, how they respond to stress and their reasoning for donating.  We reviewed the health history and found the bank with what we consider the most desirable traits.  It was hard choosing, and very godlike.  We had to agree before we started reading that both groups were equally worthy and in need of a home.  By picking one group we were just extending extra grace to them, not disapproving of the other.

The day we choose, our family became a blended race family and our hearts expanded enough to love 3 more.  These children are the result of a Korean egg and a Chinese sperm. Both healthy donors, not related to each other or to the couple who had the embryos created and stored.  So our kids will have two sets of unknown parents (genetic, and creation) and us, the birth parents.

In August we learned that our 3 embryos have been frozen for nearly 4 years and were already 5 days old when frozen.  At this age, embryos are a full blastocyst.  This means that several cell divisions have taken place and 2 types of cells are present; those which are the baby and those that will become the placenta (more info in this post).    Due to the technology that was used at the time, each embryo has as 60-80% chance of surviving thaw and successfully attaching to the uterus lining.

We pray for the safety of all of our children, but God knows when all of these souls are to join Him.  Not knowing how many of our embryos will reach birth is very difficult, but at least they will have been given a chance and either way their soul will have peace.

Quick Update

We just got back from one of our final trips up to Seattle to visit the clinic that will perform the embryo transfer for our adoption.  We left Saturday afternoon, drove six hours slept at Jeff’s folks house, had a very short appointment and then drove six hours back.  We are tired.  It has been a long week with a lot of our time being focused on the adoption.  In the last 2.5 weeks there have been 2 ultrasounds, 3 blood draws, and 5 shots. 

Nervousness has crept in – implantation day is really close and really happening!  We pour over the written schedule of when meds are to be given, concerned about not messing it up.  How do you handle having a busy life when new things get added to it?

It has been a blessing that all tests have been passed perfectly and nothing has had to change from the original plan.

Tomorrow things go up a notch.  We start 3 new meds, plus daily shots.  Once again, hopefully for a final time, we will travel to Seattle at the end of the week. 

Please keep us in your hearts and prayers during this final week as we prepare to bring our un-born babies home.  

The First Six Months

At the time of the beginning of this blog, we are already 6 months into our adoption story.  We want to share the story from the beginning, so we are going to back step a little and tell you some of what we have already been through. 

In January 2014 we discovered a magazine article from our alma mater (page 7) about a family who took these steps before us – a seed was planted.  Awhile later, Odessa brought the subject up and Jeff didn't have a heart attack (which was the anticipated reaction).  Instead, he said, “Why don’t you do some research.”

After looking up clinics online and having several family discussions we arragned for a consultation appointment on April 8. Questions were answered and God has kept doors open in amazing ways ever since.  And we started, Odessa was going to be able to carry and birth the children brought by adoption to our family.

The past 6 months haven’t been spent just waiting.  They have be spent in preparing Odessa’s body to receive the embryos.  The goal is to have a healthy baby.  To have the best chance of this happening, hormones are used to force the uterus to become the best environment possible.  In truth, this has not been the most comfortable process.  Resetting a natural system then rebuilding it causes a lot of changes in mood, weight, attitude, emotions, and many migraines.  Knowing it was for our babies was sometimes the only reason we didn't give up.

Originally we were set to have a June implantation date, but due to some unsatisfactory results on some diagnostics tests early on we were unable to complete the implantation at that time.  For the safety of the embryos, the freezer they are kept in is only opened a few times during the year.  Since we missed the June date, we were put on hold via hormones for the next date, which is September 20.   

In 10 days our babies start their journey “home”.

What is embryo adoption anyway?

          Several people have asked us ‘what in the world is embryo adoption?’  Here is a layman’s view on it.

When a person has trouble becoming pregnant they have a few options.  Some decide to pursue a traditional adoption, others enter into fertility treatment.  There are a bunch of steps in the fertility treatment world including hormone treatments, surgery, and the last one is called In Vitro Fertilization.  In this process a woman has many eggs removed and stored, and a male supplies thousands of sperm cells.  The doctors do some ‘science-y’ stuff to get the egg and sperm together in a laboratory environment. I’m pretty sure they don’t just shake it in a test tube, but maybe.  After the egg and sperm meet they are given several days to grow and develop.  After cell division has begun it is referred to as a Blastocyst.  Once the blastocyst has had around five days it is frozen (again very science-y).  It should look like the below picture, notice that there are two different cell types, the edge (trophectoderm= placenta) and the center ones (Inner Cell Mass = baby). 

  Once the woman’s body is in a good state to accept the blastocyst it is implanted into her womb hopefully this results in a pregnancy- without the trouble of having to have sex!  However, sometimes the embryo (the next stage of development) doesn't develop so they use another.  This is why they take several eggs.  Often if a family wants multiple children they will hold the rest of the embryos in the freezer until the family is ready for them.  For a better explanation see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007279.htm

'See the baby?'  'Yeah, it's cute'

        So if a family has 10 eggs taken and turned into embryos they can expect that a few will fail.  A question arises about what to do with the ‘left over’ ones.  Many families have decided to have those embryos destroyed.  Some families though continue to pay for the storage and upkeep of the embryos and to put them up for adoption.  This is where folks like my wife and I come into the picture.  Basically, we go through the same steps except they don’t take any of our eggs or sperm.  We get in on the process at the point of getting the womb into good shape for these little ones.  This entails lots of hormone therapy for Odessa.  This is not the most pleasant experience at all, but in the end it will be worth it. 

Technically you should say we are doing a blastocyst adoption, but that would be even more confusing, people would think we were adopting a young superhero.

Does this summary of embryo adoption clear things up?  If you have other questions please post them in the comments below.

How is this different from traditional adoption

We have been asked, “Why don’t you adopt children who are already here?”  To which we answer, “They are children who are already here”.  These children do have life.  Cell division has begun. A soul has been created.  They deserve a chance to live.  Let that sink in for a minute… this is human life.

But there are differences to a “traditional” adoption. 

First of all, in the eyes of the medical society and government this is treated as a medical tissue transfer, no different than an organ transplant.  Which has its benefits and drawbacks.  Since it is not recognized as adoption, there is no program for funding it, either before or after (such as with taxes credits), and no accountability – which can be kinda scary.  On the other hand, there also is no waiting or preparing on background checks, home studies, and dossier.  All of which we completely support in the traditional adoption setting.  These are all safety guidelines in places to ensure that children are being placed in healthy, loving, supporting homes that best fit their needs.  The difference is their needs are already known.  Some need to be placed in a specific environment.  The best environment for our future children is currently a womb.  There are still many necessary steps taken that endure that this environment is healthy.  Not all of them are easy, comfortable or quick.  They are simply different.

On the medical side of things, while this is not viewed as adoption – it is also not viewed as medical necessity, such a fertility treatments or diagnostics work.  It is not covered by insurance until pregnancy is confirmed, at which point it is treated as a usual pregnancy.  

The travel visits of a traditional adoption (local or international) have become many trips to our providing clinic in Seattle. 

Home studies become hormone treatments.

Waiting for a court date becomes waiting for a positive pregnancy test.

There are similar things as well.  Answering all the “why” questions from friends and family, waiting, the difficulty choosing your future children, waiting, preparing your home, and more waiting.

While there are many similarities and differences, the end goal is the same – to give a child a loving home.