Tina and Benjamin Gibson, who live in East Tennessee, wanted to have children, but tried for 7 years with no success. One day, when they were visiting Tina’s father, he told the couple he had watched a news report about frozen embryos. The couple thought it was an interesting concept, but said they weren’t interested. Still, they couldn’t get the option out of their heads, so in August 2016, after praying about it, they filled out an application. They visited the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) — a faith-based, non-profit organization in Knoxville, Tenn., that helps families using in vitro fertilization. By February, they had picked their donor profiles, in March Tina had the embryo transfer, and on Nov. 25, 2017, Emma Wren was born. What makes her unique is the fact that Emma’s embryo had been frozen since Oct. 14, 1992, about a year and a half after Tina was born. At the time, Emma was the longest-frozen embryo to successfully come to birth. Just 4 years later, Emma’s own sister, Molly, broke the record. Molly spent more than 27 years as a frozen embryo. The couple says that now they see that God was in the thick of it all along, providing the children they now cherish.
