NRFA loves to celebrate our Success Stories. After completing a successful online embryo adoption, and giving birth to a child; Grace & Kent were ready to grow their family again through embryo adoption. They signed up as recipients, never imagining they would end up being embryo donors as well.

What led you to embryo donation? 

We were actually embryo recipients that matched on NRFA.org in 2015 with our dream donors. As a recipient, my experience was amazing. Our donors had so much in common with us, we clicked right away, and breezed through the contract process. We had matched very quickly and excitedly moved forward with getting our frozen embryo transfer scheduled. Fast forward several months, two miscarriages, and new test results, and I (Grace) was faced with a very difficult decision. My doctors were now telling me that it would not be wise for me to be pregnant again. I was devastated. It took a long time to come to terms with this secondary infertility diagnosis.

I had long ago given up the thoughts of having genetic children, but I had cherished the opportunity to experience pregnancy and longed to do so again. I had wanted to give birth to these precious embryos so badly that it was very hard to think about relinquishing the dream and letting them go to another family. I knew I had to do it, but I did give myself a little time to process everything and get second (and third) opinions.

How long had your family been looking to donate embryos prior to registering on NRFA.org?

It was a no-brainer for us. Of course we would return to NRFA.org to donate once we were ready emotionally. It was through this wonderful organization that we were given the opportunity to be recipients, and we wanted to return the gift to another recipient. I spent about a year getting more opinions from doctors, researching gestational carriers, and discussing it with our original donors. In the end, we felt peace with donating the remaining embryos and moving forward with traditional adoption to grow our family.

How long was it before you communicated with a recipient on NRFA.org?

I created an anonymous profile and didn’t spend much time adding information. I was having a very hard time letting go of my hopes to carry the embryos and just prayed that the right family would find me. A few recipients contacted me, and I replied that we would review their profile and let them know if we wanted to move forward. Finally, one day, I had peace with a family, and we moved forward quickly. I shared their profile with the original donors, and they approved as well.

What special connections or commonalities have you noticed between your family and your recipient’s family?

We had similar educational and spiritual backgrounds as well as hobbies and interests. The most striking part of their profile was that they had adopted embryos from NRFA.org a few years ago and had a successful pregnancy. I felt this was a good sign she could give the embryos a great chance at life, as well as honoring the open relationship I had agreed to with the original donor.

Describe how the process of matching, legal contract, and medically planning has gone.

We used the NRFA.org contract services, and they were very helpful. We had a few extra items that had to be considered as it was the second time the embryos had been donated, but they were very knowledgeable and helpful throughout the process. I’m so glad they have so much experience with the intricacies of embryo contract, so that I could relax and focus on the relational and emotional side of the experience.