Racism and prejudice continue to corrupt the world as society still has narrow-mind on views of what a family should “look like”.
One couple Aaron and Rachel Halbert have experienced such prejudices, despite several courageous decisions they made.
The Halberts adopted two children first after discovering embryo adoption they chose to take things a step further.
Aaron and Rachel were determined not to forget those frozen embryos that people often forget is an option.
They refused to let something so superficial as skin color get in the way.
After visiting an embryo donation bank they located a set of twins they decided to make their own.3
However, the story soon took another unexpected turn.
Rachel had a very hard time getting pregnant, the couple had long dreamed of becoming parents.
They adopt two children, one boy, and one girl, that decision would face some strong reactions because the children were dark-skinned.
“We knew, especially in the South, that a white couple with non-white children would draw a myriad of different reactions. There will always be the older white woman in Walmart who stared at us with sheer disgust or the African-American mother who looked at us and just shook her head,” Aaron explains.
Aaron and Rachel were extremely happy and proud of their beautiful family.
They decided it could be a good idea once the couple became aware of embryo options.
Having been frozen for over 15 years Rachel decided to implant two African American embryos.
Therefore the existing siblings would match the new babies would.
“They agreed with our thoughts about our kids matching each other racially and were supportive of the decision to select African American embryos,” Aaron writes.
It was time to visit the doctor, who lived in Honduras, after 6 weeks to receive their embryos.
The couple was in for a completely different surprise when they arrived.
“We began to describe everything to our doctor in Spanish (broken Spanish, that is). He asked us a few times if we were sure that we had transferred two embryos. Yes, of course, we were sure,” we said.
Inside Rachels womb, the couple discovered one of those embryos had split in two.
Aaron and Rachel were not only parents of two but five beautiful dark-skinned children.
“It’s been heartening to see virtually all of our friends and family express overwhelming support for our family and the unusual ways we’ve built it. In our minds, we are just living out our dream. A dream that may not look like the average family, but one that we are thankful could come true in light of our country’s history,” says Aaron.
“I felt sheer delight during this pregnancy watching my son and daughter, with his dark brown skin and her with the ringlet hair and slightly tan skin, kiss my white wife’s growing belly. Each evening they said to those three growing little girls in her belly, and now they get to finally say sweet dreams to their baby sisters—face-to-adorable-face.”
“I can remember a friend going through the adoption process telling me he had always wanted his family to look like a little United Nations. As I look at my growing family, I prefer to take it a step further, daring to hope that our family picture is a little hint of Heaven.”