[Author’s Note: So here’s a conundrum. How do you compress a fifteen-thousand-word saga into a minuscule two-hundred-word summary?
The answer? With difficulty. As Mark Twain wrote: “I apologize for such a long letter — I didn’t have time to write a short one.”
However, despite the difficulty, the task of compression simply had to be done. Imagine the absurdity — not to mention the cost — of printing out the entirety of An Unexpected Twist to mail with Cae’s newborn photo. On the other hand, imagine the brazen flippancy of sending out nothing at all — just leaving our extended families to wonder how we acquired such a very Korean child.
No… neither of those options was good. Telling too much can be just as detrimental as telling too little.
But tell, we must. Caelestis has a bright and loud story: a story that begs — even demands — to be told. I — as the story’s current guardian — am thus burdened to find the correct way to tell it: in each situation, and to each audience.
The following is my best attempt to reduce Cae’s story to its broadest brushstrokes.]
Caelestis (kai-LES-tis) began life in the same way that all humans do: as a single cell. Unlike most humans, however, Cae and his four siblings spent the next thirteen and a half years in cryogenic slumber.
A medical tragedy prevented their genetic parents from carrying those five embryos to term. Even so, the couple still protected this “Heavenly Quintet”, affirming that every image-bearer is worthy of dignity, love, and life.
By God’s grace, those genetic parents eventually found us through Snowflakes Embryo Adoption, and they chose to place their embryos with our family. We promised to love and cherish those precious image-bearers… even knowing that not every embryo can be born.
Indeed, of the five, Caelestis was the only single-celled embryo to survive both thawing and culturing. As a blastocyst, he was transferred into Holly’s uterus – where he successfully implanted and grew into a full-term baby!
We are overjoyed to welcome this little one into our home.
Cae may have started life in a different family… but God always knew that this long-frozen embryo would become our fourth earthside baby.
Interested to learn more? Read the full story here: A Heavily Foreshadowed and Yet Completely Unexpected Twist.