1Year Ago, 2 Months From Now

Today is significant in our embryo adoption journey. One year ago today was our first appointment in Seattle. Two months from today is our full term due date. What a year it has been. In some ways the longest waiting time we have gone through, yet it seems to have gone by so fast. 2 months is the longed we will have to wait to meet and hold Amos and Irene; which, again, seems so far away yet coming so fast!


God has been so good to us through this entire process. We have 2 children coming who thus far appear to be healthy. The pregnancy has been more comfortable than past ones. All medical expenses have been covered. We have already had many gifts arrive in preparation for Amos and Irene. Despite all the stress of adoption and pregnancy combined, we are still very happily married and like each other!



We want to thank all of you who have been with us on this journey for the entire time, and those just learning about where God has taken our family this past year. You all add to the blessings we have been given this year.

SHAM I Am

Things are changing around here but it isn't just my belly size!!  Though that is too.

28 weeks ain't too bad from the front, but sideways there is no denying I'm pregnant.

First selfie with daddy

But those were taken 3 weeks ago...I'm not even sure you could call it a "bump" anymore, more of a "mound."  In fact at my 30 week check up, the top of my uterus is at the size of a full term single baby - only thing is I have 5-9 more weeks to go.

31 weeks

Cresting into the third trimester has brought on the dreaded "kankles".

But I truly have wonderful helpers around here.

The big change is...it is official, I am no longer a working (out of the house) parent!  A few weeks ago I had my last day working as a part time administrative assistant at my kids school.  I had been employed there for 3.5 years, prior to this I was blessed with being able to be a stay at home mom for our 2 girls.  I loved being able to work were my kids go to school, but as they have grown and our family has changed with the embryo adoption Jeff and I both felt it was time for me to be a stay at home mom once again.  It is bittersweet to no longer be working.  Oldest and youngest daughter are independent, beautiful little people who are really OK with me not snooping at them at school.  Jeff has been blessed with a job that he enjoys, and which provides sufficiently for our family.  But transitions are hard.  I know the school with continue to run without me, but there is always that "one thing" I didn't get wrapped up.  Truthfully - I am SO EXCITED that I get to be home to raise babies again!  

I'm beginning to look the part too.

In February we were able to purchase a car that actually has enough seat belts to hold our whole family.  This happened  a little sooner than expected because Jeff's work commuter car died on us - like literally the junk yard picked it up from the mechanic dead.  It made more practical since to purchase a family car versus another commuter at this time.  Truthfully - I am SO EXCITED to have a van again, they really are practical, can hold my family, and I can currently still get in and out of it independently.

Another change to hopefully make life a little easier is my hair!

As a friend once put it (who also happens to have dreads), "Dreads are the ultimate mom hair do!"  I'm really starting to agree. I am only about 2 weeks into the process, but am already really happy with the new look.  It can take up to a year for them to mature,  but it is going quite quickly with my naturally curly hair and some hooking techniques both Jeff and I are mastering.  It takes me about one minutes to do my hair in the morning, and a few hours here and there to keep them tight.  The tightening time will also lessen as they mature.  And because I know some of you are asking - Yes, I will still keep up on personal hygiene (shaving, deodorant, ect.);  Yes, I will still wash my hair;  No, they will not stink if cared for correctly;  No, I will not start smelling like patchouli oil because I don't like it.  Truthfully - I am SO EXCITED to have a low maintenance hair style.

And I want to leave you with one more photo because everyone needs a little Spring cuteness in their day.

Currently living in our living room, 4 meat birds and 2 laying hens to add to our small flock rotation (you can count more in this picture, we had a few early casualties.)  Hopefully they move out before babies move in!

Happy Spring everyone, He is risen, and we are so blessed.

Medical Update

The time has come to do a quick medical update on our embryo adoption - boring, but for documentation purposes we will write about it anyway.  Awhile back in this post we mentioned that we were going to be visiting a specialty clinic in order to make sure all things were good with the growth of our babies.   Due to some communication issues, at first the appointment didn't come as soon as we were expecting and then we were rushed scheduled!  Craziness trying to get everything lined up - but it worked!  Here is what we learned:

1.  The growth difference between the two babies isn't a concern at all.  As long as they both keep growing - we are good!

2.  Baby "A" (who we now call Amos) has a slightly small kidney and a spot on his heart where the muscle is denser (which apparently 1 in 10 Asians have, while only like 1 in 100 whites do - who knew).  Again they said neither of these are a concern - but may be something to monitor. 

3.  Lastly, we learned that Amos' umbilical cord doesn't come from the center of his placenta like usual.  It comes from the side, lays along the sack wall exposed, then grows into his cord.  Again, not a concern at this point as all three blood vessels are present in the cord and he is growing fine.  However, it will also be monitored closely.  If the exposed cord stays low in Odessa's abdomen as it is now, and her water were to break it could potentially break the cord and he would bleed out before he was born.  Simply put - if everything doesn't line up right we will be doing a scheduled cesarean for delivery.  Not our preference, but God is good and we are glad we found out about this now and not while in labor.

We have been asked to visit the specialty clinic one more time to make sure each baby is growing at a healthy rate and to monitor the rest.  If all is staying the same, the rest will be handled by our local OB.

As we are getting ready to jump into the last trimester of the pregnancy, we would appreciate prayer for a few specific things.  First that each Amos and Irene would continue to grow at a healthy rate.  Second, that they decide to turn head down and that the placentas move up so we have the best chance at a good delivery.  Third, strength for Odessa as she enters her last month of work.  Many thanks to you for following our embryo adoption journey and amazing support through this adventure.

And They Shall be Called...

It is our great pleasure to introduce you to:

Amos Radagast Kershner

Irene Teleia Kershner

Brought to you by love and science!  They will be making their first appearance this spring to join our family.  More of an update to come concerning the specialist ultrasound and such.  But for now we are signing off as overjoyed and tired!!  Blessings and good night.

Half-way Update!

We are half way (well, hopefully over half way) done with this pregnancy!  By the calendar today I am 21 weeks pregnant with our embryo adopted twins.  Time seems to have flown by since the first trimester unpleasantness lifted, I'm sure the holiday season helped with that.  The photos that follow reflect the typical half way point of 20 weeks, but twins can be early so I may have as little as 15 weeks left!!  And I do believe some growing has happened since then!

20 Bump!!  Babies are growing!

We had our 20 ultrasound last Monday on exactly 20 weeks.  It was a LONG appointment with over 180 pictures taken.  Babies are both individually within the "healthy" range.  Heart beats were strong (141 and 136), and all organ and brain pictures looked normal.  Praise the Lord!!

Here is twin 'A" looking for its hand.

And twin "B" full profile (you can even make out a leg bone curled up!)

While everything individually looked great, there was a significant amount of size difference between the 2 babies.  Normal growth range is anywhere between 5% and 95% - with 50% being perfect by the calendar growth (which is pretty rare).  Baby "A" measurement averages put it at the 84% range (20 weeks), while the average measurements for baby "B" were in the 18% range (19 weeks).  At the 20 week point, it is common to be perfectly healthy with baby measuring 18-22 weeks in size.  Sooo long story there to say we are waiting for a call from a specialty maternity ultrasound clinic in Eugene to make sure that "Big baby"isn't stealing nutrition from "Little baby" and to make sure "Little baby" keeps growing.  We have been waiting for the referral call for a week now - so there must not be too much concern.  With the amount of movement felt and with all other scans looking perfect we really aren't concerned.  They are after all different people and have permission to grow at different rates.

Tomorrow I meet with the OB again to check everything out and hopefully she will have more of an update for me.  A heart beat ultrasound will once again be done as well as water level check.

While we do have A LOT of good news...we have had a recent loss, sigh:

"Youngest daughter" can no longer reach all the way around to give a hug.  She had been "measuring" daily and it seemed to disappear overnight.

And because we were in the mood, here are a couple of funnies to leave you with:

Lastly because we know you are asking - we DON'T know what we are having :).

Many thanks for following our adventure.  Please note the e-mail, t-shirt, and funding information in the side bar to the right.

Thankful Reflection

17 weeks and 2 days pregnant with our twins!  God is good.

Odessa's embryo adoption pregnancy update for week 17:  Things are going great...most days.  About once a week there is still a bad day, but this is usually following a day where I may have over done it.  Babies are moving and felt almost everyday internally, the rest of the family is still patiently waiting for stronger kicks.  This last week we had another ultrasound and both babies looked great, had a great view of one of them trying to suck its thumb (so cute!).  I recently started on some natural, gentle body cleansers and stabilizers in hopes of having normal hormones after so much hormone therapy to prepare for transfer and carry the first trimester safely.  They seem to be working, and most likely aided in the last bout of feeling nasty!  But afterwards it was worth it to feel and look so much better.  I can't believe we are already almost half way done with this pregnancy!  This time last year I never would have dreamed this is where I would be today, but I am so glad we took the huge step of faith to start this adventure.

On the first day of 2015 we wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on the roller coaster of a year that we have had.  After all, it was only in January of 2014 that we found out about embryo adoption even existing.  Outside of the adoption we also had a quite eventful year.  We have much to be thankful for.

Top 10 highlights of the year:

1.  Oldest Daughter competed in her first organized sport!  She finished her cross country season strong by breaking the personal goals she had set for herself.

2.  Youngest Daughter graduated from Kindergarten and we are now in full elementary school mode!

3.  Odessa's brother got married .

4.  Jeff's brother and his wife had their first baby.

5.  Oldest Daughter participated in a regional level spelling bee, math olympics, and speech meet.  

6.  Jeff survived totaling a car and a deer.

7.  Our tax information AND credit card information were both stolen, but no major results happened.

8.  The current family car rolled 300,000 miles and keeps on going!

9.  We had an 'advanced gardening' first and are now eating a small amount of meat raised on our property!

10.  Jeff coached the first ever MVCA Lego Robotics team.

Bonus: We feel very blessed to be ending our year with ALL adoption, with related travel and medical, expenses  100% covered and paid off!!!  What a great way to start 2015.  

Our next area of focus will be locating and purchasing a minivan for the family, hopefully in early spring.  This is needed not only because of the high miles on the current family car, but also because it doesn't have enough seat belts for our family after the babies arrive.  We are humbled in asking for assistance on this, but we do still have our gofundme account set up, and the sole purpose will be to purchase a vehicle.  Thank you for reading and your continued support of our family.  We have truly been blessed by the support we have received during our embryo adoption adventure.

A Little Math and An Invitation

This week we reached 13 weeks pregnant with our embryo adoption!

"YAY!" for being done with the first trimester - but symptoms still persist.  The nausea isn't nearly as bad, but the fatigue is still very much present.  Keeping up with the house seems to be a daunting task most days, but luckily I have a very capable and understanding family when it comes to cooking, cleaning, and housework.  They have all taken on extra tasks, or graciously looked the other way from undone tasks, and for this I am very grateful.  

While the side effects of a healthy first trimester are not quite behind us, the joys of the second are starting to arrive.  I feel the babies several times a day already (remember they are running out of room in there twice as fast) and both Jeff and Heidi have gotten to feel them as well.  Clara is very patiently waiting her turn!

It has been 10 days since our last shot and a week since all other supplemental meds have stopped. Yay!  Our mornings and evenings are much more relaxed around here.  

Just to give you an idea of what we did:

200ml = .84 cups = 130 needles over 2.5 months

Looks about like this!!

We had another ultrasound and the girls got their first chance to see the babies.  Babies appear to be healthy and growing at the same rate - which is very good.  Their heart beats have slowed to 150, but are still really healthy.  The girls crowded around a tiny screen to get a peak at their siblings with great enthusiasm, it was so good to see them excited.  We are very blessed parents.

And we would now like to extend to you an invitation:

This Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014, at 4;00pm, we will be sharing our full embryo adoption journey at Evangelical Bible Church in Dallas (please e-mail address in side bar for address).  We would love to see our followers there in support of our journey.  Many thanks, Jeff and Odessa