I also want to say, as a Placing Parent, meaning one who placed their frozen embryos for adoption, I can assure that our embryos, by definition, were NOT Orphans! We greatly loved these babies from the moment they were conceived and cared for them as we could, until such time that we placed them into the lives of their Adoptive Parents. To call them “orphans” is so appauling, inaccurate, and offensive.

As these children grow, we never want them to think of themselves or to refer to themselves as “orphans.” We love them no differently than the children we gave birth to and agonize everyday over the fact that I had to have a hysterectomy after my twin girls were born. There’s a hole in my heart that I will have to live with for the rest of my life - to not have these babies a part of our immediate family.

When we were going through IVF, we were truly naive about the process and what we were getting ourselves into. No one from our church that we talked with, including our Pastor, warned us about the implications we could one day face. It’s not that I’m not taking responsibility for our careless actions with regard to their lives; it’s just that we didn’t know what we were fully getting ourselves into.

It makes me sad how quick people are to judge, instead of looking at all of the facts. Some of these Placing Parents are dealing with a cancer diagnosis, the death of a spouse, the death of a child….on and on. Embryo Adoption is a valid way of helping these parents with a decision they never thought they’d have to face. Relinquishing your child to be raised in another family is not somehthing any parent hopes to face. It’s not an easy decision, but was the right decision. To give them a chance at life…..that was the only option in our minds.

We have dedicated our blog and our lives to raising awareness about embryo adoption-God’s miracle.

2 Jens

Jennifer

There are so many children waiting to be adopted all around the world, at every age, whether while an embryo, or infant, or child, or young adult. As Christians, we just need to take heed of our command to care for the orphans and see what part we can do to impact the lives of many!

I am very happy for you continually speaking truth according to God’s word, and I am very excited about the upcoming adoption conference!

-Ashley

I am pro-life and I cherish the inspired Scriptures. I have four children and my wife and I are seeking God’s wisdom regarding more. I am also a church planter and SBC pastor, and a PhD student.

I spent much of last week researching this very issue from a pastoral perspective to respond to a question from a young married couple regarding “abortifacient” forms of birth control and the controversy over the labeling of the pill and IUD as such. As you know, those methods work a secondary way by preventing implantation to the uterine wall. I discovered that there is quite a disagreement regarding the theological question of when life begins: at fertilization or implantation a few days later. For this young couple, this was a serious ethical and theological question.

Some have stated that since the scripture teaches the “life of the flesh is in the blood”, that life actually begins at implantation when blood is introduced. Like you, I have always believed that life begins at conception, but the issue of frozen embryos does confuse me. How can a “living soul” be frozen and cryogenically preserved indefinitely? This has raised a great scientific and theological quandary for me, and because I have great respect for you, I would appreciate any help you can offer.

(Dobson, Piper, Alcorn were not very helpful to me on the specifics of this question.)