Four precious lives on hold

James and Leah began trying to have a baby two years into their marriage. They soon discovered that due to Leah’s surgery at age 16 for a ruptured appendix, scar tissue was preventing the eggs from coming to the uterine tubes. More surgery was the answer and they rejoiced when they finally saw that positive pregnancy test. Their son was conceived traditionally and born nine months later.

As many parents do, Leah and James waited a few years before trying again. They needed more surgeries to remove scar tissue and sadly each attempt at conception was unsuccessful. Knowing their family was not complete they sought the next level in fertility technology and pursued IVF.

Leah responded almost too well to the hormones and the doctor finally decided to stop retrieving eggs after he’d removed 22. They transferred three embryos and two implanted. Leah and James were overjoyed to learn they were having twins! After a normally eventful pregnancy, two beautiful, healthy girls were born.

Years later, their family of five found themselves busy with their involvement at church, raising 4-H animals, traveling, sports, Civil War reenactments, band, swimming, dance, and caring for aging parents. James and Leah knew their family was complete and, after thoughtful consideration and much discussion, decided to place their remaining nine embryos for adoption through Snowflakes. Continue reading »

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Nightlight’s Magical Moments 2012!

Thank you to all who were a part of our Nightlight Christian Adoptions’ Magical Moments Dinner & Auction on April 29th! From the joys of sharing a meal with old and new friends alike, to watching awesome adoptees like Toma & Nick wheel & deal those raffle tickets away, to being WOW-ed by special entertainer Omar Covarrubias, to the beautiful dancing of our Nightlight Children’s Ensemble and more… a Magical night was enjoyed by all! We are so grateful to the many who gave of their time, energy, and gifts to make this evening so memorable for Nightlight families and supporters. If you couldn’t make it to this special dinner, make sure to join us on July 14th for the annual summer picnic at Los Vaqueros Park in Placentia! RSVP with Kristen in the CA office at (714) 693-5437 or info@nightlight.org.

Three special leaders at Nightlight- Lisa Prather, Victory Allan, and Laura Godwin!

The reason for we celebrate- all of the attending Nightlight kids!

Catching up with beloved Nightlight supporters

Great job Nightlight Children's Ensemble

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4th Annual RunWalkAdopt

Last Saturday (April 21), Nightlight hosted our 4th annual competitive 5K in Greenville, South Carolina. The race was held at the beautiful Furman University and participants were able to run around the lake on campus and take in the rest of the extraordinary venue.  We had around 160 runners in this year’s event.  Participants ranged in age from our youngest being only a few months old to our oldest who was in her 60’s.  The event was geared towards families, but also attracted local running competitors Bill O’Shields and Elliot Taylor.

This year’s event was a huge success.  Over and over again we have heard what a truly great time families and runners had during the race.  We have also heard numerous times that people cannot wait to participate next year!

We want to take the time to thank our amazing committee; who sacrificed months to plan and prepare for the day; Furman University, for a great location; and Go-Green Timing for helping us make this year’s event a hit.  We look forward to another great race next year and hope for an even bigger turnout!

For more event pictures, visit us on Facebook.

  

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Snowflakes® Donors Pay Their Last Embryo Storage Bill

“Megan, I have a call for you…”

By the tone of the receptionist’s voice, I knew there was a problem. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Well, she wants to donate her embryos, but the family can’t afford the storage anymore. They won’t be able to donate if they can’t move them right away.”

I was too familiar with these calls. ‘The couple has been storing embryos ever since their IVF cycle, and now their kids are around four and six years old. They have decided not to have more children. It is no longer affordable to store these remaining embryos and they don’t plan to transfer them. Now they have just received the next storage bill.’
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The Snowflakes team at Nightlight® Christian Adoptions decided this was a problem which they could find a solution for. When opening a new storage facility was not the solution, they contacted Fairfax Cryobank in Austin, Texas. Several former Snowflake donor families had used it for storage and the staff at Fairfax Cryobank was easy to work with.

One conversation led to another and Fairfax Cryobank and Nightlight are now pleased to offer a low-cost storage option for donated embryos.

Families looking to donate their embryos can choose to move them out of their fertility clinic and over to Fairfax Cryobank for just slightly more than the cost of Fed Ex overnight shipping. The embryos will be safely transported to Fairfax Cryobank in Texas and stored for up to a year while their embryo donation is completed.

For the donor, the most difficult part of the process is completing the application and signing the Fairfax Cryobank storage agreement–the professionals in the Snowflake’s and Fairfax Cryobank programs take care of the rest.

Embryos are generally moved to Fairfax Cryobank a few weeks after the patient decides to donate them. The cost to the patient is just $350 and includes Fed Ex overnight shipping and one year of storage. The donor, working with Snowflakes, can be as involved in the selection of the adoptive family as they choose. Another benefit to the donor is the fact they can know the final outcome of their donation—was a baby born?

Fairfax Cryobank is a trusted service provider when it comes to storing embryos and the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program has repeatedly demonstrated their care for the donating family and their embryos as individual. Snowflakes services are child-centered and always keep the best interests of the children at the heart of their program.

Learn more about this exceptional storage solution for your remaining embryos.

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Hannah’s Story: The First Snowflake Baby

The first child born through the process of Embryo Adoption was Hannah. Hannah and her parents share their amazing journey as they helped pioneer an entirely new way for people to build their families. The Strege family continues to advocate and support embryo adoption in their local community all the way to the White House.

 

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Faith through the ups and downs of Embryo Adoption

The following is written by a Snowflakes family.

We are Ben and Steph, and we’ve had an amazing experience with embryo adoption. After dealing with infertility, we looked into EA. We liked the pro-life aspect – rescuing little lives that are frozen in time, waiting just to be given a chance at life. Being pregnant was also a huge plus – forming that bond from the beginning and knowing that we could do our best to provide a healthy, happy 9 months for the baby. But at the core, we chose EA because we knew God was clearly leading us in that direction.

We have definitely faced the fear of disappointment along the way. Each time you do a transfer, you open your heart to the hope of your embryos surviving and being born, of holding a baby (or babies) in your arms. It’s a place of vulnerability known especially by those who have struggled with infertility. Also, what might be considered typical “adoptive parent” fears cropped up – that our child would someday reject us as the “real parents” or that because we adopted multi-ethnic embryos, our child would have just one more layer of questions and potential difficulty with us being the parents. These fears caused us to pause, take time to talk and pray together, and seek God’s reassurance before proceeding. Continue reading »

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Dear Abby Addresses a 21st Century Dilemma: What to do with remaining embryos

Since 1956 readers have been turning to the “Dear Abby” column for answers to life’s questions, concerns and more. Today [January 3, 2012] Abby addresses a concern facing 21st century readers: what should be done with frozen embryos remaining from in vitro fertilization treatments? Deadlocked in New Jersey and her husband are facing this difficult dilemma for two of their remaining embryos. Deadlocked and her husband successfully gave birth to twins via in vitro and then had a third child conceived naturally.

They believe their family is complete, yet morally, Deadlocked believes she should give the embryos ‘the chance [at life] they were meant to have.’
In the face of an economic hardship, Deadlocked’s husband is hesitant to pursue another frozen embryo transfer. This leaves Deadlocked unsure how to ‘do what I believe is right and stand by my religious and moral beliefs’ without causing her husband to resent her.

With more than 612,000 embryos in frozen storage in the U.S., many other families may be facing a similar struggle.

Abby suggests that Deadlocked may want to consider another option: embryo adoption. “Your embryos could be donated for embryo adoption by a couple who have been unable to conceive, and who would love to raise them.”

To read the Dear Abby Column visit Yahoo News. For more information on how to donate remaining embryos visit the Embryo Adoption Awareness Center.

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Orphans and HIV/AIDS: Making a positive impact

Based on a visit to the CDC with an expert on HIV/AIDS, who also has a strong and personal interest in orphan care, I learned that one of the most striking facts that all of us who care about orphans should realize: Not only does AIDS create orphans, but orphans are the most likely group to become HIV infected.  For example, 60 % of street kids, ages 15-25 years old, in St. Petersburg and nearly 54% of kids in Kiev are HIV positive.  We already know that there is a higher rate of crime, drug use and prostitution among those who age-out of the orphanages—and these are the same risk factors that lead to HIV infection.  When we start to take care of the orphan crisis, we will also be positively impacting the HIV/AID crisis.

One area most impacted by AIDS is Africa, so when I read that some people are “concerned” about the rate of adoption among children fromAfricabecause people are “trafficking” in adoption, I am truly amazed. Does anyone really think that people are stealing babies and children to sell them for adoption? Are there not enough babies and children already orphaned by AIDS and other diseases inAfrica? Are children left at police stations or with elderly grandmothers who can barely care for them, not truly orphans? Why do these children not deserve a stable home? Is it truly illegal for a judge to rule that this child deserves a family and gives guardianship for a child to a family so that the family can legally adopt the child? Continue reading »

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Nutrition and International Adoption Part III

Your internationally adopted child can suffer malnutrition before and after birth. The risk factors that negatively impact the child’s growth and development include alcohol exposure, poor maternal diet, and lack of maternal health care. In most instances you will receive little or no prenatal or early life history on your child.   And you may know little as to what your child was fed in the orphanage. Fortunately, however, there has been a marked improvement in the overall care children receive once in orphanages and this includes better diets.

While in an orphanage, your child may have received enough calories to fill their tummy, yet they may not have received the protein and micronutrients needed for optimal development. Such a calorie sufficient diet often consists of gruels or porridges made up of rice or other grains lacking sufficient protein, vitamins and minerals.

The food received in the first year of your child’s life is very important as brain development is affected by the level of protein and micronutrient the child receives. So even if your child was chubby and content, they may still have been malnourished. Although getting enough nutrients is required for optimal growth, some are more important than others, with iron being one of the most important nutrients. If a child does not get enough, it can affect cognitive development.

Once home, your child will most likely play catch-up. However, even if your child does show a nice growth spurt and tests negative for iron-deficiency anemia, all may not be well. First, if your child tests negative for anemia, they can still be iron deficient. Next, if they have a growth spurt, this could further exacerbate iron deficiency because the iron stores are not sufficient for the child’s increased blood volume. So a child who appears to be growing quickly and gaining weight may actually be suffering from iron-deficiency anemia.

Therefore, your child should be assessed for nutrient deficiencies at least twice in the first year home.  Also, your child should be checked for  intestinal parasites such as giardia. Such an infection can decrease the absorption of iron and other nutrients. This means that even if your child is getting enough iron in the diet, she may still be deficient because she is not absorbing it. Continue reading »

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It’s NOT About Me: post-adoption conference in Rock Hill, SC

Christian Family Services and Bethany Christian Services are sponsoring a one-day workshop on Saturday, November 12, 2011 called “It’s NOT About Me! Raising Adolecents with Peace and Not Fear.” This is a workshop for families who adopted infants and young children who are now teenagers.

The cost is $20 per person, or $50 for a family of 3 or more.

More details and registration in this brochure (pdf).

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Flooding and Phnom Penh Orphanage

Over the last couple weeks, there has been an extraordinary amount of flooding in Cambodia. One site recently affected is the Children’s Relief Center (CRC), an organization that Nightlight has partnered with in the past for humanitarian efforts and adoption. The flooding has come into the first story of a wooden house that’s part of the orphanage complex. The structure is holding up well, but there will likely be expenses related to damages. If you’d like to donate to help cover these costs, go to our Donate page, click on “Donate Online” and then select “Cambodia Aid” from the drop-down.

CRC, October 12, 2011

CRC, October 12, 2011

(Nightlight has donated funds to the CRC to assist with purchasing food during this time of unusually severe flooding.)

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Finding Families: 2011 Adoption and Foster Care Conference

Laura Beauvais-Godwin, director of Nightlight Christian Adoption’s South Carolina office and leader of the Carolina Christian Alliance for Orphans, is helping coordinate Finding Families: 2011 Adoption and Foster Care Conference, to be held October 25, 2011.

Presenters include representatives from USCIS, SC DSS, US Department of State, various South Carolina adoption agencies, and the ABBA Fund, as well as attorney Raymond Godwin and special guest Ryan Dobson, son of James Dobson.

This one-day conference in Taylors, SC, is sponsored by United States Senator Jim DeMint and Carolina Christian Alliance for Orphans.

Free registration and more details at the event page.

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SPOON Foundation’s nutrition & feeding resource for adoptive & foster families

The SPOON Foundation and JCICS have recently partnered to launch a website, Adoption Nutrition. It looks like a great resource, featuring, for example, a section with nutrition profiles for various countries where children are adopted from. Check it out.

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Cambodia Adoption Update

The Cambodian government has announced its intention to resume international child placement as early as April 1, 2012. This means adoptions in Cambodia will not resume for U.S. Citizens or Non-U.S. Citizens before April 1, 2012. The U.S. has stated that specific safeguards and procedures must be in place before it will agree to allow U.S. Citizens to proceed with adoptions. If we receive any new updates on Cambodia’s adoption status, we will provide updates here.

It is our hope that under the new adoption system, Nightlight will be able to resume our Cambodia Adoption program.

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Helping families with the transitions of International Adoption

About one-third of families who adopt internationally have smooth transitions; another third or so have some difficulties, but manage to work through these issues; and another third have serious and more pervasive problems. In these more difficult circumstances, even the best parents are often not prepared. Those families who are struggling need support, like every family—sometimes from friends and families and sometimes from experts.

To get some good advice from professionals and to hear the challenges other parents face, you may want to join Beyond Consequences live 10-session parenting course right in your own home. The first class is complimentary—so take a test drive.

This Free Test Drive will be on Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 9:15 p.m. EST.

Each of the 10 sessions following be on Thursday evenings and run for 90 minutes through November 3, 2011.

You and other parents can ask questions and discuss the specifics of your family situation with the professionals.

Click here to sign-up at no charge for this first class and see how it works on the Internet. Continue reading »

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