Carolyn and Sean Savage had always wanted a big family but life had other plans. The couple had struggled for nearly two decades with bouts of infertility, leaving them broken and hurting.
Image via Carolyn & Sean Savage/Facebook
But when Carolyn finally got pregnant through IVF, life had started getting better for her but a call from the clinic changed all that. Turns out, the child growing inside of her wasn’t even hers and now she had to make a life-changing decision. Learn how the Savage family dealt with all of life’s blows and came out stronger.
Meet Carolyn and Sean
Sean and Carolyn Savage got married in 1993 and soon after, the couple was ready to start a family. They had always wanted a large loving home filled with children and never did they doubt that anything would come in the way of this dream, least of all them.
Image via Carolyn & Sean Savage/Facebook
Everything was going to plan at the start and within the first year of marriage, they welcomed a beautiful baby boy, Drew. Parenthood was everything Caroyln and Sean had expected it to be and they loved every aspect of it.
The Next Step
As they found a groove in their routine with Drew, it was time for baby number two but life had other plans. The couple had been trying for months and months, never getting the happy news they so desperately wanted.
Image via @carolynsavage/IG
While they were grateful for Drew, Carolyn and Sean yearned to grow their family and the more time it took them to get pregnant naturally, the most disheartened they became. Finally, the couple took the next step and decided to get more help.
Alternate Options
The stress was seeping into their family life, they weren’t ready to take on expensive evasive fertility treatment, instead opted for ovulation stimulation shots—injections that aid in increasing the number of mature ovaries produced, to heighten the chances of conception.
Image by Carolyn & Sean Savage/Facebook
And It worked! Three years after their Drew was born, in 1997, the couple welcomed another beautiful baby boy, Ryan, into the family. The couple felt elated and relieved, they had fought and won a long battle and expected the rest to be smooth sailing… but it definitely wasn’t.
Downs And Downs
While slow, Carolyn and Sean’s family was growing and again they were ready for another little one. Having gone through fertility issues for three years, they weren’t as optimistic as before but still hoped for the best.
Image via @carolynsavage/IG
But again, they tried for years to get pregnant and Carolyn had to turn to ovulation stimulation shots again but this time, things didn’t go as planned. While it had worked before for them, the shots were not helping this time around.
More Help
While the two loving parents were beyond grateful for being blessed with two precious boys it didn’t make their third round with infertility any easier. Carolyn and Sean still wanted to have more children and they weren’t ready to give up just yet.
Image via @carolynsavage/IG
Nine years, the couple waited and tried and finally Carolyn underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure that fertilizes sperm and eggs externally in a lab, and then places them inside the mother’s uterus.
Baby Number Three
And just after the first round of IVF, they were pregnant! The couple had their first daughter named Mary Kate. “My three children are the light of my life, and although at times they push my buttons, raising them is a challenging privilege,” Carolyn shared with Today.
Image by Carolyn & Sean Savage/Facebook
Most people would have been done after having three children but the Savages still clung to their original desire of having a large family. For them, their household wasn’t complete but little did they know that the next pregnancy try would challenge them like never before.
Ticking Clock
Carolyn was nearing her 40s when the couple decided that they were ready for another addition. While some research has shown that your chances of getting pregnant get lowered after 35, the couple was undeterred.
Image by Carolyn & Sean Savage/Facebook
Heartbreakingly, they had several miscarriages before they decided to try IVF again and since it worked for them before, they were sure that this time would also be successful. Little did they know that the news their IVF clinic had in store for them would change their life.
One More Try Before It’s Too Late
Carolyn and Sean still had a few of their frozen embryos stored at the IVF clinic from their first try and decided to use them and just like last time, the process worked like a charm and the couple were ecstatic.
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But just as they were celebrating, a call from the clinic stopped them in their tracks. The news was so bizarre, unexpected and bewildering that Carolyn felt like she was starring in a movie.
They Did What?!
Her doctor notified them that Carolyn was pregnant “with another couple’s genetic child.” It looked like the IVF clinic had mixed up the couple samples and it wasn’t Carolyn and Sean’s child that Carolyn was pregnant with.
Image via Carolyn & Sean Savage/Facebook
“We were overwhelmed … There was nothing we could do,” Carolyn shared with CBN. The two were completely dumb-founded, they felt a million emotions at once, from sadness at the loss of their own child to fear for what would happen next.
Decision Time
Their joys had turned into ash and they now had to comprehend what would happen next to them and the child growing inside of Carolyn. What were the biological parents going to do? Could they still raise this child? Or should they terminate the pregnancy?
Image via Carolyn & Sean Savage/Facebook
So ready and in love with this unborn baby was the couple that they were ready to even share custody of the child if the biological parents would allow it but first, they needed to talk to them.
Major Decisions to Make
If the biological parents wanted the baby, this would mean that Carolyn would become an unwilling surrogate mother for someone else. Suddenly, her deep desire to have her own big family had turned into her helping someone else’s dream.
Image via Carolyn & Sean Savage/Facebook
The IVF clinic got back in touch with Carolyn and it turned out that the biological parents, Paul and Shannon Morell were desperate for her to continue the pregnancy, they too have gone through years of infertility. “We just did what we would want someone to do for us … We knew to carry the baby to delivery would morally be the right thing,” Carolyn confessed to CBN.
The Gift of Little Man
This was going to be very hard for Carolyn, she had to deal with her own fertility issues while spending the next nine months, falling every day with someone else’s child inside of her but what kept her going was knowing that the Morells had the same struggles as her.
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She decided to even give her child a name, once she found out the gender, ” Little Man”. Carolyn emotionally expressed during one interview “We tried to focus on the gift, not the loss,”.
A Mother’s Love
“[A mother’s love] is so intense that there are truly no words to describe the feeling that floods us the very moment our child is placed in our arms … When we placed [Logan] in the arms of his adoring mother, our love grew”
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She continued “I grew. I now try to recognize the little things—the tiny joyful moments that my kids bring into my life—and treasure them. Logan taught us so much, but the most important piece of his legacy for me is a lesson of love,”
One Difficult Thing After Another
Carolyn had thought her struggles with growing her family would be the hardest part of her journey but accidentally getting pregnant with Little Man had pushed her into a battle, she never could have imagined.
Image via carolynsavage/IG
Feeling him grow inside of her and then giving birth to him, only to give him away increased her desire for a child of her own. And this time, Carolyn knew what to do and Little Man helped her make her decision.
Losing Hope
She found herself surrogate through an agency, a kind, young lady named Jennifer was willing to help the couple finally grow their family as they had originally intended but just as the process was getting underway, Jennifer had an unfortunate miscarriage.
Image by Carolyn & Sean Savage/Facebook
She was just two and a half months into her first trimester. The Savage family was, yet again, full of emotions and saw their world crumbling beneath their feet. It all but looked like they should give up on their dream and be happy with the family they had.
Just In Time!
The family were still healing from their wounds when they decided to try for one last time and well, it turned out to be well worth it. “We went on to have twin daughters with the help of a gestational carrier”
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“Reagan and Isabella were born in August 2011 after our hero, Jennifer Onash, carried them to term. They completed our family. We thought they were a happy ending. I guess God—or fate—had additional plans for us,” Carolyn eagerly shared with Today.
Complete Family
The Savage family has been through their fair share of whirlwind twists and turns but finally, life had decided to gift them what they had longed for years. “In the heat of full schedules and endless to-do lists, Logan has taught me to savour every moment and to appreciate the gifts of my children”
Image via carolynsavage/IG
“I love being their mom. [Being a mother] is an experience that I’m incredibly lucky to have,” Carolyn emotionally shared with Today. But life wasn’t done with surprising Carolyn just yet, another one was waiting for her right around the corner
10 Years Later
Well, by corner we mean 10 years later, The Savage family of seven were busy building the dream life they had always envisioned when Carolyn felt something was off. She had an eerie feeling she was pregnant, so decided to take an at-home test.
Image via carolynsavage/IG
Carolyn told Today, “When the first little line popped up on the home pregnancy test I scolded myself. Of course, it was only one line … I’m infertile. I’ve gone through countless fertility treatments over the past two decades and except for a couple of IVFs, I’ve only seen two positive home pregnancy tests. What on Earth was my 45-year-old-self thinking? I couldn’t be pregnant now. Could I?”
Pinching Herself
Well, yes you could be! “When I turned it right side up, I was startled: turns out that one little line was the results line. It was on the left—not the right. It was the ‘You’re pregnant line,’ not the control line I’d seen so many times before,” she further explained to Today.
Image by Julia Fiedler/Pixabay
She couldn’t stop asking herself, “how is this possible?” “Of course, I knew how it happened, but the idea that a couple can simply conceive? For me and many other women who suffer from infertility, that is the stuff of fairy tales. I didn’t get pregnant that way. I needed drugs, ultrasounds, needles, blood work, Petri dishes, doctors, surgery and truck-loads of money to conceive.”
Preparing for the Worst
While this news left the couple ecstatic, they still were preparing themselves for the worst. Statistically, the chances that this baby would be carried to full-term were slim. “We waited to lose this baby. Lo and behold, our first appointment passed with an ultrasound of a healthy seven-week-old fetus”
Image via @carolynsavage/IG
“Then our 11-week appointment passed with hopeful results from our nuchal translucency, a test that gives a risk ratio for chromosomal abnormalities. Finally, at 15 weeks we received the results of our cell-free DNA study: Our baby was chromosomally typical, and he is a boy,” Carolyn emotionally expressed to Today. What incredible news!
“Inconceivable”
In 2014, the couple welcomed their sixth and final child into the world, Nicholas Winston. For Carolyn and Sean, it felt like the end of a chapter but that didn’t mean their story was ending. They wanted to help other couples going through infertility treatment and decided to write a book, Inconceivable.
Image by Carolyn & Sean Savage/Facebook
It chronicled the family’s struggle, heartache, happiness and happily ever after from the start of their marriage to their last child. A book that is as heart-warming as it is miraculous and a must-read for every parent.