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We're adopting! Our hearts are excited and hopeful for the opportunity to grow our family by inviting a child in need into our home to love as our own. However, the adoption process we have chosen is quite unusual. We will not be visiting the baby once they are born, or traveling across the world, or even working with the foster care system. I will be God willing, carrying our adopted children through a 40 week pregnancy and delivering a child that is biologically not ours, but emotionally has been with us through every step of the journey. We are pursuing snowflake adoption!
Before I go through my advocacy for this type of adoption I should clarify- with my husband and I being abolitionists of abortion, we oppose not only surgical or chemical abortion; but also IVF, Embryonic Stem Cell Rearch (ESCR), and abortifacient birth control. We believe all of these practices display a dehumanization and destruction of the image bearers of God in their weakest and smallest form.
That being said, Snowflake adoption is the process in which you adopt pre-created embryos that have been frozen through the IVF process. In just 2012 alone, there were over 1.2 million embryos created and frozen through IVF, while only 62,000 children were born. This means for every 1 child that is born, they have on average 19 other kin that are frozen in cryogenic ice chambers, discarded without mourning, or experimented on for stem cell research. Believing that life begins at conception, this practice is what I believe to be one of the most disturbing and sinful acts of innocent life that one can bring. There have been millions of lives lost to this process, and still millions who are waiting to feel the warmth of a mothers love, as they have been abandoned by the parents who so desperately wanted children.
“learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow's cause.” - Isaiah 1:17
As Christians, we are called to seek justice, to advocate, to fight for what is good and right. These embryos are human beings and image bearers of God, and they are the fatherless ones, we should feel called to rescue those sent to slaughter, and I believe they are those children.
“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”- Romans 12:9
It is not uncompromising to adopt and take in these frozen forgotten children, and also fight to make sure this process ends completely. As we are fighting to make this evil process illegal, our goal is to save as many of those millions of abandoned children as we can. As they have no other chance at life without us doing so. We will hold fast to what is good in this adoption, and abhor the evil in which caused this type of adoption to exist.
“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”-Ephesians 5:11
During this adoption process my husband and I have 3 goals. 1.) Try to rescue children. 2.) Grow our family as we have struggled through infertility for many years. 3.) Educate and Provide resources to encourage other families to follow. Rather than holding fast to the evil work of IVF for a small biological similarity in our kids, at the cost of millions of babies to die, we reject that and are eagerly and urgently wanted to encourage other families to look into growing their family in an attempt to rescue other forgotten children- if they have the ability to do so.
“He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?”- Micah 6:8
Is this adoption process for everyone? No. Do you need to be “called” to do this type of work? Also no. The Lord certainly requires us to speak against evils, to bring forth justice, and honor him in our work. This adoption process is painful, physically and emotionally draining, and oh so worth it to see image bearers be brought up from the atrocity of being frozen for so many years.
“And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” -Luke 10:27
“Love your neighbor as yourself” -Is this a call to be kind, and humble in our speech? In a way, yes. But it is also stating we must lay our lives down for our neighbors, fight for our neighbors, and love them as we love ourselves (John 15:13). These children are our neighbors, and the most defenseless of them all. I could not be fulfilling this commandment if we did not speak up for them and advocate for their lives.
So why is my family pursuing snowflake adoption? Because we are commanded to recognize those embryos as children, and fight for them. I have struggled through many years of not feeling adequate enough, or less of a woman because of infertility. I have felt the pangs of sorrow with each negative pregnancy test I have taken. I have prayed as Hannah did with Samuel, but still knowing God has blessed my family and we will still praise him. God has blessed my family with the opportunity to pursue this adoption, the conviction to stay steadfast in fighting for their lives, and a love for these babies so big, we mourn them daily. We look forward to the day God willing, we will be able to hold our adopted children in our arms, and show them the love they had not felt for years. And, if this is not successful, we will mourn their loss, and grieve over the idea that they were put in a situation where they could not survive. But I find comfort in knowing, even if our babies do not make it, for a brief moment, they were no longer abandoned, they will always be loved, and they died warm.
We have been preparing for this adoption for well over a year, and as we have approached the next few steps, there are emotions I did not expect to feel. All of them I will be open and vulnerable with throughout this process. For now, I will remain hopeful, I will continue to love those babies, and I pray that God may be glorified in our faithfulness.
If you would like to know more about this position of abolition, here are some wonderful resources I recommend:
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