Families come together in many beautiful ways. The question for me was: How do I build MY family?
My first thought was adoption. I have amazing cousins who joined my extended family through adoption at very young ages. I immediately bonded with them and hoped to incorporate adoption one day in the building of my own family. This was the first avenue I researched. I know of couples who have waited years to adopt a child and I felt that being single would limit my opportunities to adopt in the United States.
I then researched international adoption. I found that there were a handful of countries that allowed a single person to adopt. As I continued to gather information, I discovered that all of the countries required lengthy stays abroad before being able to complete the adoption. Some countries required multiple visits. This time is important for matching children, but I knew that in my situation I would not be able to leave work for such extended periods of time.
Alongside my research of these two forms of adoption, I also found out about embryo adoption. This option would allow me to adopt embryo’s that had previously been frozen and stored by couples who did not plan to attempt further pregnancies. This idea really interested me, as I would have the opportunity to experience pregnancy and I would know the child from birth.
One day during my research, I remembered the Jennifer Aniston movie The Switch. Aniston’s character plans to inseminate herself with donor sperm. This prompted me to research insemination options. This opened the door to an idea I had not ever thought of, a baby through the help of a sperm donor.
After prayer and conversations with my family and friends, I decided that I my heart’s desire was to have the opportunity to experience pregnancy with a child who was biologically related to me. I decided it would be the first path I would try to build my family, and if needed I would again explore the other options.
