Adopting an embryo

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, January 10th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a different kind of adoption.

Every year in the United States, families adopt 130,000 children. Only a few are adopted as infants. And even fewer are adopted as embryos.

EICHER: When a woman goes through in-vitro fertilization trying to become pregnant, she often has embryos left over. Those tiny lives are frozen until their biological parents decide what to do with them.

WORLD’s Whitney Williams met one couple who chose to adopt some of those frozen embryos.

AUDIO: “My Place in this World” (1992) “The wind is moving, But I am standing still, A life of pages, Waiting to be filled”

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, CORRESPONDENT: In 1992, Michael W. Smith’s “Place in this World” won Song of the Year at the 23rd annual Dove Awards.

MUSIC: [My Place in this World]

That same year, five children came into this world via in vitro fertilization. Those children would remain frozen in the embryonic stage for the next 30 years, waiting for the adoptive parents God had planned for them to, well, grow up a little.

Philip and Rachel Ridgeway were just five and three-years-old at the time.

In 2022, all grown up and married, the couple adopted those five embryos. Sadly, though the Ridgeways wanted to give all five a chance at growing up, three of the embryos didn’t survive the journey.

But this past November, the family’s story gained national attention when Rachel gave birth to two of those 30-year-old embryos: Timothy and Lydia.

AUDIO: Robin Roberts, GMA: “Now to the record setting twins born from embryos frozen 30 years ago …”

Occasionally, between diaper changes, feeding, and homeschooling their four older children, the Ridgeways will scroll through online comments, just curious about what people have to say. Some remarks bring chuckles:

PHILIP: Like, welcome to the 21st century tiny time travelers and it's kind of what they are.

Other comments aren’t so funny.

RACHEL: I think the one for me is people going well, there's a reason they were frozen for that long, like somehow they're, that there's something wrong with them. Like they're 30 years old, they should have just stayed frozen … kind of that idea.

But, in a way, the idea that something might be quote unquote “wrong” with the embryos is actually what drew the Ridgeways to them to the National Embryo Donation Center’s “special considerations” category.

PHILIP: When we adopt children on this earth, we are imaging what what God does, in rescuing sinners. And so having Lydia and Timothy has really been a way of, of talking with our, our other children and demonstrating with with actions, not just words, what it means to love God and to love others and, and what adoption looks like, lived out. And that that love towards those who are those who are needy, and, and helpless.

Embryos flagged “special consideration” by the NEDC have known potential for genetic or other abnormalities. Timothy and Lydia’s biological father passed away from Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as ALS. According to ALS.org, approximately 5-10 percent of cases are due to genetic mutations and are inherited from a family member.

RACHEL: So it's possible they could have that it's possible that they won't have that. But because of that history, they had to be put into that category. People don't look at those categories. They don't look at those kids that aren't perfect.

PHILIP: And it was really heartbreaking because they said we have we have donor parents that will call periodically and ask, Hey, has anybody adopted our embryos? Has anybody looked at their profile? And they have to say no. And so that's one of the reasons probably why they were waited so long, is because they were they were looked at as inferior to other embryos.

The Ridgeways’ adoption was anonymous, so the couple knows very little about Timothy and Lydia’s origins …

PHILIP: And that's, that's brings up an important point, which is that it's sometimes easy to think what awful parents did create these children, then just put them up for adoption, not raise them themselves. But you have to remember, you don't know the circumstances of the donor parents. So, you know, love tells us to believe all things, hopes, all things believes the best about a situation. And it's important to do that, even when thinking about the donor parents, but in this case, knowing he's passed away, we're thankful to God that he gave up these children for adoption. And that was the best decision he could make for them.

The Ridgeways agree that it’s sad, the way many people go about IVF, treating little lives as commodities, as a means to an end. But for the roughly one million embryos currently on ice in the United States, their stories aren’t over. Hope is not lost.

PHILIP: It's important to remember that conception, that creation of life is, is something that God and God alone can do. And so, all these embryos that have been created, they've only been created because God has ordained before the foundation of the world, that they would come into existence, and that he is the one who is who has not only allowed them to be created, but he has allowed them to be frozen and preserved, which which also is a is a kindness of him in that he's made a way for these children to be saved.

RACHEL: He could have chosen any family in that 30 years. And instead, he chose our family. God wanted us to be their parents.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Whitney Williams in Dallas, Texas.

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