“Embryo donation addresses a major dilemma for many Canadians who have completed in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments,” says Beginnings Executive Director, Kerry Vandergrift.

Until now in Canada according to the Beginnings agency website, options for couples with embryos in storage were limited to having their embryos destroyed, leaving the embryos stored indefinitely, or donating their embryos for medical research.

“Now there’s another option,” says Ms Vandergrift. “Beginnings has launched an Embryo Donation Program giving couples the opportunity to donate their remaining embryos to infertile couples hoping to become parents.

Unfortunately by looking at their website, their embryo donation program comes with a very high price tag to families trying to build their families through the miracle of embryo donation.

It is a good thing that now in Canada, couples with embryos in storage have the option of donating their remaining embryos to another couple who is trying to conceive, but in my opinion the agency Beginnings who will be doing the matching has fees that are way too high.
According to the Beginnings website as of today April 12/2010, their program fees and costs are $13,500. Additional costs will include the fertility clinic fee, clinic storage fees after contractual agreement, disbursements (travel costs, etc), independent legal advice re contracts and additional counseling costs.

I’m not sure if this is available in Canada but please if you are thinking about receiving embryos though embryo donation in Canada, please check with your clinic whether you can deal with them directly. If that is possible you could possibly avoid paying Beginnings’ agency fees.

Also check Miracles Waiting in the US. They charge only $150 to those trying to find embryos to build their families through embryo donation. Donors can do the same for free. They have online profiles from both families wanting to donate their embryos and families waiting to receive embryos. Recipient families can post their profile and donor families read through and email them if they are interested. Some donors also post profiles and recipient families can contact them directly.

Those videos reminded me how I used to feel more than a decade ago when we just started our journey trying to get pregnant.
Then, I was still so hopeful that I would have the family that I always hoped for…. but after 10 years of trying and finally being blessed with the birth of our lovely daughter (eight years ago) I still have the desire to have another child and so I keep trying!

Stan heard in church about a Denver, Colorado (USA) family facing a rather bleak Christmas holiday. Medical bills robbed them of any extras; they would not even have a tree. Stan’s pastor asked him if he would get them that tree.

So Stan and his son Jay headed up into the Colorado Rockies in the family pickup. However, the truck skidded off the icy road and hit a boulder that shattered the windshield. Jay was showered by glass slivers and suffered from shock and crash trauma. Stan was uninjured, though somewhat shaken.

Cars sped past that day — maybe 200 of them. Only two stopped to help. A gentle, dark-haired woman took the boy into her car to comfort him while her husband and another man helped Stan move his truck off the road. Then this kind couple drove father and son to Stan’s home and quietly left without identifying themselves.

Stan was discouraged that he was unable to cut a tree for the family that his church was trying to help. But later in the month, the pastor asked if Stan might deliver a food basket to the same unfortunate family. He found the house, but he could hardly find his speech when the door opened. For standing there before him was the same couple who had stopped to help him on the mountain road when so many others had passed him by.

There is a strange power in love. Some folks may call it an amazing coincidence. Others might say it was divine providence. But I choose to think that love has its own power, and that sometimes these kinds of mysteries are better left unanalyzed. Let them remain mysteries.
And enjoy the wonder of it all. For whenever we choose to be kind, we just might be surprised by joy.

– Steve Goodier
Used by permission - www.LifeSupportSystem.com

Here is a close-up of the two last ones:

Aren’t they good looking?