- next on life focus... - we had really closed the door. we thought we would never carry a child if we can't do it biologically. - embryo adoption. - right now in the united states there are probably about half a million embryos in frozen storage. - from the deep freeze of a science lab. - so it really did open that door back up again for us. - we didn't want to just, you know, freeze them forever.

and we wanted to give them a good chance for life. - to the warm arms of a mother. - and the idea that our child had biological siblings, maybe even across the globe, and we think that's very exciting. - snow babies, a new kind of adoption on this edition of life focus. - the following program is made possible by the christian reformed world relief committee, an agency working for change in communities around the world. to find out more about crwrc's ministry to those struggling with aids, poverty, and injustice, visit: - this program is also made possible by opportunity international, helping women around the world work their way out of poverty. more information can be found at: - this program is brought to you in part by breakpoint. more information about faith everyday is available at:

- program support provided by calvin college in grand rapids, michigan. with 100 majors, 4200 students from around the globe, calvin college provides a place for thinking, questioning people who want to make a difference in the world. calvin, minds in the making. ♪ - hello and welcome to life focus. i'm dan meyer. in north america alone, half a million embryos are cryopreserved, frozen until their fate is determined. after the couple that created them decides that they won't use their embryos, a new option offers hope to another couple that deeply longs to

have a baby. currently, some 10,000 of these embryos have been donated for adoption. one couple, chris and andrea janssen, believe that these frozen embryos give them renewed dreams for having a child. - i really can't imagine a life without children. from the time i was a little girl carrying around a baby doll, it's just something that you always imagine doing. - high school sweethearts, chris and andrea janssen always dreamt of having a family. - i had such a wonderful chdhood that i wanted to be able to pass that on to other children. - after years of medical treatment for their infertility, ten childless years passed by and andrea lost hope. - you feel like something is missing and it's something most people do take for granted. so you do wonder why it's happening, and it's hard. - doctors told them they would not have biological children of their own.

the news hit them hard. - so it was, in one way we knew that okay, no more monthly roller coasters of wondering is this going to be the month and then finding out that it's not. - knowing that i was infertile was tough for myself to deal with. - at that point, it was the end of a chapter because you had to grieve the fact that you're not going to see your husband's eyes in your child. - i was also looking at andrea saying she may not be able to go through the pregnancy experience. i kind of felt that i had taken that away from her, so i felt guilty also because of that. - it does take a lot to work through. - the janssens knew children would be part of their plan. andrea looked into international and national adoption, but the wait would be long. the number of parents wanting to have children outnumbered the babies available for adoption. - so you feel like that you're going through this for a reason, that you're meant to

adopt, and then you find out that well, not really. there are a lot of people waiting to adopt. so that was kind of, it was another thing to mourn actually. - through a bethany christian services newsletter, the janssens first heard about frozen embryo adoption. a new and foreign concept, it didn't seem possible. - i got out that brochure again and i was reading through it, and as i read through it, i was just thinking well, why wouldn't this work for us? why couldn't this work? - but the more they learned about embryo donation and adoption, the more the janssens believed it could work. - the pros of embryo adoption for myself was being able to have that bond with the child from the instant of implantation. all throughout the nine months being able to feel the first kicks, being there definitely being there for the births. - the dream may be completed here. - here at the national embryo donation center in

knoxville, tennessee, the janssens came to receive their embryos. carol sommerfelt oversees the transfer. - we presented them with a picture of their embryos that were going to be transferred to them and to actually hold something physically in their hand and know that they were going to have these embryos transferred. - andrea took drugs and hormones to prepare her body. - we had to give her shots twice a day and so as tiring as that was, that was something that we knew that it will be worth it. so we went down for the procedure then and the whole time we are just, i was just excited. - at first glance, the n.e.d.c. lab looks like something out of a science fiction movie. here thousands of embryos are stored at 320 degrees below zero. - they are in an inanimate state. they're not doing anything, they're not really deteriorating. as long as

they're maintained correctly, they're good indefinitely. - before implantation, the embryos are thawed and placed in an incubator. - and the incubator tries to mimic what goes on in a woman's body. - three of the four embryos andrea adopted survived the thawing process. they were transferred directly into her uterus. - i told chris, whatever happens, whatever whether this is successful or not successful, today i'm carrying triplets. - while success rates may vary from clinic to clinic, on average over 30 percent of transfers will result in a live birth. - one embro's implanted and i'm carrying one baby today. - it's exciting to hear the heartbeat any time. it's almost surreal, you know, that andrea's pregnant and there's a child and that's gonna be your child. - and the children you might have in the future from those embryos are yours.

- the donor family for the janssen's baby live in washington state. - i can't tell you how many nights i stayed awake thinking about the other embryos. - they want to stay in contact with andrea and chris through exchanges of letters and e-mails. - we know their interests, i know the donor mom's favorite song. - i also put together something for your scrap book in the next week or so. - i know their favorite colors, i know their health histories which is important to know for your family. - it's still an adoption. and the child will realize that sometime in its childhood, whether it's when it's six or when it's ten, but it will be an issue for that child. and i want to be prepared to answer questions. - andrea and chris believe embryos need a family just as any other child. - embryos are no different. it's life. life begins at the very beginning of conception. we could provide a loving home for the embryo. - i've grown a little bit since you've been gone.

- now 33 weeks pregnant, andrea enjoys her last trimester. - this is the best part of pregnancy i think because i just feel, i feel wonderful, and it's so neat everyday it's moving around pretty much constantly. - life is all about preparing for the baby. - i've noticed her doing a little bit of the nesting trying to prepare things. - that one's cute. - and i'm thinking we've got plenty of time but it will come up faster than i realize. - emotionally i feel a little more confident with each passing week. - her eagerness to be prepared is probably a good thing. we've gotten some of the large items for the baby so hopefully it will be a downhill run to the birth portion of the pregnancy. - i feel more excitement getting ready to meet this little person that i've been carrying around.

- the janssens have waited for nearly ten years to bring their first child home. the last two month's wait seems unbearably long. - well, i have to say what i'm looking forward to most, at first anyways, is just to see those little toes and those little fingers and to see the face of the child that i've been carrying to find out is it a boy or is it a girl? - dan meyer: andrea and chris janssen never dreamt that they would give birth to their adopted child. the donor family however faces difficult questions when deciding what to do with their leftover embryos. what decision is best? who will adopt our embryos? and how can we possibly allow our children to be raised in another family? believing their family complete, silke and johanes rick of louisiana struggled with these same issues.

- sometimes when i wake up, the kids start crying and so on, it's still an unbelievable thing for me that i have three kids. - as a result of in vitro fertilization following their own struggle, the ricks gave birth to triplets. during the process, they created eight embryos, each of which they expected to use to have a family. - it's three, i mean it's a nice number of children. so yeah, it's hard to know what you're getting into until you've lived, you know, through it. we're not even through, we're in the middle of it. - fifteen years of waiting and longing to have a family of their own, they now have their hands full with johanes simon, julius vincent, and anna marie. - they're all very different.

- giving birth to three children all at once, and as older parents, the ricks decided their family is complete. the problem, what to do with their remaining embryos. - we wanted to give them a chance to live. - as scientists, the ricks didn't feel comfortable with leaving their potential genetic offspring in an indefinite deep freeze and viewed the embryos as life frozen in time. - all the embryos that were created are children and our ildren. we love them and we want them to have a chance for a very fulfilled and loved life. - with a desire to give her offspring a chance at life, silke searched online for information on embryo donation. - the fertility clinic never kind of advocated embryo donation as an option. we kind of gathered information for ourselves what other options we have.

- the ricks are not alone in their dilemma of what to do with leftover embryos. - many donors really struggle with this decision. it's a difficult and challenging place for them to be in and can leave them with great feelings of uncertainty and not always knowing where to turn. - debra peters oversees embryo donation and adoption here at bethany christian services, the largest adoption agency in the world. - for some, they haven't received any knowledge or education that this is an option that they can consider. - some couples prefer to put off making a decision leaving the embryos in a frozen state indefinitely. - the other options that exist are sending the embryos to science for research, or purposefully destroying them, or leaving them in a forever state of frozenness. - it's true that not every embryo will come to birth. who's going to choose? - dr. jeffrey keenan is the founder of the national embryo donation center here in knoxville, tennessee. - making the wrong choice is

something that i would never want to have to be faced with, and you have to give each embryo the benefit of having a chance at life. - in the 20 years i've been in the business of freezing embryos, keenan says that well-intentioned parents don't use their remaining embryos, leaving destiny of their offspring in the hands of fate. - some people don't think about that, is that these couples aren't going to live forever, okay? and is it fair to leave those embryos then and the care of these embryos in the hands of their brothers and sisters? - the ricks found themselves in the same difficult position. they held a deeply ethical conviction of what should be done with their unused embryos. - the embryos is a human being and at that point you have to take care of it. - we didn't want to donate them to research.

we didn't want to just, you know, freeze them forever. and we wanted to give them a good chance for life. - but with an overwhelming 400,000 embryos left in limbo, advocates hope they can offer them a chance at life. - it's not a decision you just say oh, yeah, we just do it because it's a bunch of cells and what do we care? no. i mean and that's why specifically we chose embryo adoption because they needed a family. - it was a hard decision, yes. but it was for us the only possible way to go. - the ricks received one profile. - no, we've never actually met them. - the ricks picked mary and kent wilke to love their unborn child. - what happened and it happened pretty quick. we got the profile in the mail, it said yes we want them. i had heard about embryo adoption a long time ago and

thought oh, that sounds really exciting because then i could be pregnant, which when you adopt there's still losses that you experience and one of them is you don't get to experience being pregnant, which oddly enough is something i wanted to do. - mary and kent also struggled with infertility. - you just get through it. lots of prayer. but it was a tough time. i mean i was really depressed for a while. - mary has fagile eggs in that she does get pregnant, but then the egg just doesn't stand up and it's passed. so we have fertilized embryos at certain points but they just don't make it. i can tell you quite honestly those moments from a husband's perspective, you feel just amazingly inept. there's so little you can do. you just try and be there, and it's just as much our loss as well.

- three years ago they adopted josh the traditional way. now mary, after receiving an embryo transfer from the rick's remaining four embryos, is pregnant with one child. - obviously she can carry a child to term, and we're really excited about that. and i know mary just wouldn't trade anything in the world for that experience. it's really been such a blessing that we've been able to do this. the whole interaction with the biological parents up until this point has been fabulous and they're just wonderful people too. - basically the recipients helped us a lot too in relieving us of the worry what would happen with them if we would feel unable or continue to feel unable to have more children than we have. - the wilke's hope that their unborn child will meet his brothers and sisters, even if it means a trip to europe where the ricks plan to return.

- the idea that our child will have biological siblings, maybe even across the globe, we think that's very exciting. you can't have too much family or too many people in your life that love you. but we hope that we can all meet some day and that sort of thing. - dan meyer: andrea and chris janssen don't know if they're going to have a girl or a boy. in the meantime, the wilke's are also expecting their snow baby, a term they use to describe a child born from frozen embryos. both couples are nervous about bringing home their first birthed baby. - snow baby really, the term grew out of the fact that these embryos are in a frozen state and they really basically are on hold. - as babies born from a frozen state become more common, technology will adjust so that fewer embryos are created. - one of these advances is being able to freeze the eggs

before fertilization occurs. - scientists predict future technology will be more efficient so that only the embryos needed will be created. - so eventually we may put ourselves out of business, but that's a good thing because it means that these embryos are not sitting in limbo somewhere and people having to make decisions. - even though it's technology that's created the problem of having too many embryos, it's scientific advances that's giving infertile couples another option to have a baby. - scientifically it's not well understood how long an embryo retains its viability. however what we know from reports, they have had beautiful healthy children born from embryos that have been frozen for as long as ten years. - we had a little baby girl, audrey elizabeth. - it's the day andrea and chris have been waiting for nearly ten years. - it seems to be that audrey is a little stubborn, you

know, late; and it's just a little stubborn during delivery. - with a slightly complicated labor and delivery, andrea received the gift of an adopted child, one that she carried and birthed. - i think one thing that's really incredible is that she'll open her eyes and look at me, and it's just like she recognizes the voice so that part is really special for me. - birthing a child is something andrea never imagined she could experience. - it's almost unreal as far as putting it into words, and it almost still doesn't seem real yet. - the more i see her, the more i realize that she's coming home with us and that she's our little daughter. - the janssens have decided they want to expand their family from the 13 cryopreserved embryos they have remaining, each one genetically related to baby audrey.

- hopefully we will be able to have some siblings for audrey in our home too. - well, i was in labor i guess about 24 hours. and things just weren't progressing very well so they finally did a c-section. - mary wilke's hopes of experiencing normal labor and delivery vanished but didn't take away from the joy of holding her newborn son. - i guess it all seems surreal still. part of me is like i can't believe it has happened, but yeah, it's definitely worth it. absolutely. stretch. - the cooing sounds of a newborn baby. for the wilke family it's not new. john peter is their second adopted son and their first birth baby. - when i first laid eyes on him, it was love at first sight, i guess is one way you could put it. - my message to the rick family would be just thank you from the bottom of our hearts

for this awesome little baby. - baby john however won't be able to have more genetic siblings as all of the ricks embryos have now been used. - i do want to adopt again so i would definitely consider doing this again. - back in louisiana where the completed rick family live, curiosity about their new son is mixed with sadness and wonder. - i know right--i love them but the new one at the moment i do not know. but they will know him and they will love him and that's a major thing. - of course it's in a way strange that you think your biological child will grow up with other people, strangers; but on the other hand, there's no other option than the donation. - donation was perhaps one

of the hardest decisions of their life, to allow another family to love their child. - i would like to see my kid, sure, my biological kid, but in a way they are raising it, they are giving him their love. - for mary and kent, baby john represents scientific advances wrapped in the arms of love. - without having that whole process there is no way that even could have ever happened for us, but it was magic. it really was magic. - he's definitely a miracle and i feel like we had an important role in helping create the miracle. - dan meyer: embryo adoption ultimately provides hope for all involved. for the donating couple, it's

a positive life affirming way to resolve a challenging dilemma. for the adopting couple, it can be a beautiful opportunity to experience pregnancy and childbirth. and for the embryos themselves, embryo donation provides an opportunity to grow, be born, and live a full life. that's all for today's life focus. thank you for joining us. i'm dan meyer, and we'll see you again next time. - more information about this program can be found on line at: the title of today's program is on the screen. - i think the ricks have given us an awesome gift, you know, giving us their own biological child, just wonderful, you know. what do you say? thank you just doesn't sound quite adequate.

- basically, it's the best gift that we've received ever, and it really is a gift for audrey as well to have the chance at life. - some really wonderful relationships have been formed through this process of embryo donation and adoption. the embryos have the opportunity for life, the adoptive families have the opportunity for pregnancy and giving birth, and the donors can be assured that they gave every possible opportunity for life to the precious embryos they've donated. - program support provided by - program support provided by calvin college in grand rapids, michigan.

with 100 majors, 4200 students from around the globe, calvin college provides a place for thinking, questioning people who want to make a difference in the world. - this program is brought to you in part by breakpoint. more information about how you can live your faith everyday is available at: - this program is also made possible by opportunity international, helping women around the world work their way out of poverty. more information can be found at: - the following program is made possible by the christian reform world relief committee, an agency working for change in communities around the world. to find out more about crwrc's ministry to those struggling with aids, poverty, and injustice, visit: - announcer: more information about this program or other life focus episodes can be found on line at: pricing and ordering information for dvd copy of this program are available on our web site or by phone at: