Embryo adoption promotes culture of life
U.S. organization helps Canadians fulfill parenthood dreams
When Mark and Miriam Hordyk made the decision to adopt a child, they didn’t fully realize what God had in store for them.
The Winnipeg couple had gone through a miscarriage and the death of a child at 10 days old. Then, they say, the idea of adoption started to appear everywhere, from posters in the grocery store, to road signs, to people discussing it around them.
“I thought, okay, God, are you trying to tell us something?” recalls Miriam.
Mark and Miriam pursued traditional adoption for three years without result, which they remember as a frustrating experience.
“After we had pretty much given up on traditional adoption, Mark’s two sisters came in from out of town and mentioned they had just heard on the radio about Snowflakes Embryo Adoption through an organization called Nightlight Christian Adoptions,” says Miriam. “Embryo adoption? At the time, I thought that sounded kind of weird. But then we checked out their website, looked at the testimonials, and we were both in tears and decided we had to look into it more.”
Miriam says one of the things that impacted them was finding out there were about 500,000 frozen embryos in the U.S. alone. These embryos are from couples that have completed in vitro fertilization treatments and have remaining embryos stored in fertility clinics.
“Embryos are babies; they are life,” says Miriam. “So that’s 500,000 lives frozen, waiting. How can you say no to that?”
“We did have some questions and we consulted with our church, did some research, and talked to some ethics professors,” says Mark. “We wanted to make sure that as Christians we make proper choices. They confirmed that there was nothing ethically wrong with it. So we felt more comfortable with it then.”
After applying for the Snowflake adoption program, the couple received a response that they had been selected just a few weeks later. In total the fees come out to between $12,000-$16,000.
“In August, 2010, I was pregnant!” Miriam says.
Mark appreciated that his wife was able to carry the child herself and provide a healthy start for him. They could provide an environment with no drugs, smoking or alcohol and form the mother-child bond right from the beginning, and in March, 2011 their son Landon was born.
Miriam kept in contact with the biological mother during the pregnancy and afterwards.
“When I was pregnant, I e-mailed her after every doctor’s appointment. We phoned them when he was born and sent pictures,” she says. “We hope to meet them in person soon.”
“It’s not like they were giving up their embryos because they didn’t want them,” Mark says. “They really wanted to use them, but for medical reasons she couldn’t carry on with the remainder of her embryos, and they decided they couldn’t just leave them frozen.”
This story is a common one for couples that have completed in vitro fertilization treatments. Mark and Miriam say they are immensely thankful they discovered the Snowflakes program and are currently living as a family of three in their Winnipeg home.
Miriam says, “There’s never a time when I suddenly think about Landon, ‘oh, he’s not mine, he’s from somewhere else.’ The love is amazing.”
November is National Adoption Month in Canada. To learn more about Nightlight Christian Adoptions, its Snowflake program and how you can adopt or donate embryos from Canada, visit www.nightlight.org/embryo-donation-canada. You can also visit www.beginnings.ca to learn more about embryo donation in Canada.
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