Blog written by Cryogenic Laboratories, Inc. Site Manager Amy Erickson Hagen
Happy Holidays! You ask why do I say that, it is the middle of January? I was just reminded last week how truly happy the holidays make me working at Cryogenic Laboratories, Inc. I received a late coming Holiday card last week. We have gotten a card from this family for the past 4 years and it didn’t arrive in December as usual so I figured they went to the FaceBook method of updating everyone and ditched sending the family photo.
However, just last week I opened a card from one of my favorite families and was so excited to see their smiling faces. What makes this family so special is that when they first contacted me they had been trying to adopt for almost 8 years unsuccessfully. I knew the moment these two men sat down in my office they would be excellent parents. They finally decided to move to the next step and go to IVF with the use of an anonymous egg donor and sister of one of the men to carry the baby. Everyone was excited and all on board. They were ready to start the next day and then they realized they would be considered directed donors.
Since they were homosexual men they were not eligible to be donors and at the time AATB did not have a means for exemption for homosexual men to be directed donors under their policy. Therefore CLI wrote a request for exemption to AATB asking to reconsider their policy and it was accepted. This exemption request then transferred to the standards committee where the AATB standard was modified to allow all homosexual men to be directed donors so this would never be an issue for other men going forward.
Interestingly enough during this brief time it took for AATB to review and allow the exemption they found out they were selected by a birth parent and would be soon the parents of a little girl. By soon, I mean within 3 weeks. They were ecstatic and I remember the first time they brought this little girl into my office. She had the most beautiful skin and gorgeous eyes. I figured they would wait a bit to bank their directed donor semen but with their little one only a few weeks old they were in banking their semen and preparing for their IVF cycle later the following year.
I now look at their holiday picture with each of these handsome men holding a beautiful little girl and am overjoyed that I could assist with making them a family. The card didn’t make it before 2011 arrived as it always had years prior but you can see by the smiles on their faces they are all enjoying each other!
