Liz Krainman calls her 4-month-old baby girl a "snowflake," but not because she looks so cute. Little Sammy is actually one of several children in Krainman's embryo adoption group with that nickname. "We sometimes lovingly call our frozen embryos snowflakes," she says. "It fits them perfectly! Each is a tiny, delicate, frozen being, and no two are exactly alike." Krainman, 33, and her 37-year-old husband Kevin—residents of Austin, Texas—sat down with People to explain why they chose to adopt an embryo that had been created by another couple's IVF cycle and frozen in a storage facility. The process costs about $3,500 to $12,000 per try, they say:
- Why not adopt the old-fashioned way? "I believe life begins at conception," she says. "Therefore, these embryos are life" and deserve to "be loved just as any child deserves."
- What's more, wait times for regular adoptions can drag on, and even successful adoptive parents never get the chance to experience pregnancy. "I would feel my baby kick, go on late night ice cream runs, and watch my wife give birth to our child," says Kevin of Krainman's pregnancy.
- What about those who say it goes against God? "I very much disagree with this," says Krainman. "Man may put the pieces of science together to form an embryo and to freeze it, but God puts the life and soul into these babies."
- What will they tell Sammy? "As Sammy gets older, we will openly answer questions about it," she says. "We don't want it to be a secret. Secrets imply shame and her origins are anything but shameful."
And Krainman isn't alone: Another happy mom-to-be writes in the
New York Times about adopting an embryo, and a couple tells
CBS News about their satisfaction with the process: "You feel like you are adopting babies—[the embryos] are yours now," the mom says. "I knew that they were alive going into me." (Click to read about a woman who was
accidentally impregnated with another couple's embryos.)
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