I Was The First Frozen Embryo Ever Adopted. Here's My Story.

I was a frozen embryo, one of perhaps hundreds of thousands of them at the time, created via an in vitro fertilization industry unregulated and out of control. But I was fortunate. I was the first frozen embryo ever adopted.

Before I had a name, I was assigned a number, not an identity.

The backstory is that my parents, John and Marlene Strege, had experienced infertility, the result of my mother’s premature ovarian failure. My mother, similar to most women, desperately wanted to experience pregnancy, and in her anguish, and aware of the expanding number of frozen embryos created, she asked the question: Can we adopt frozen embryos?

A Question That Changed Everything

What happens to the embryos no one comes back for?

A second, more important question, given their Christian faith, was whether adopting frozen embryos would be acceptable in the eyes of God. They sought answers from leaders of their church body, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, as well as from one of the most influential Christian men of the late 20th century, Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family—the man who eventually became my godfather.

Each of them returned the same verdict: If the family that created the embryos is not going back for them, they need to be adopted.

Jeremiah 1:5: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

Of those 20 frozen embryos my parents eventually adopted, I was the only one who survived the freeze, the thaw, and the implantation.

The next step, a formidable one, was finding a couple willing to relinquish their remaining embryos. Another Christian family that had undergone IVF had had five children and still had 20 remaining frozen embryos. They contacted Focus on the Family, asking whether there was another couple who could take them. The woman to whom they spoke at Focus on the Family told them, “I know who the parents are,” as my adoptive parents had met with her about six weeks prior.

My adoptive parents completed all the requirements in the state of California for adoption, including a home study. Of those 20 frozen embryos my parents eventually adopted, I was the only one who survived the freeze, the thaw, and the implantation.

A Life That Continued Beyond the Lab

I was thawed on Good Friday in 1998, then transferred into my mother’s womb the day before Easter, the day when Christians, via the resurrection, celebrate the gift of new life. I was born on the last day of that year.

My adoption was the impetus behind the founding of the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption program at Nightlight Christian Adoptions. Rooted in our Christian faith and pro-life values, my adoption story largely informed the trajectory of my life and career, based on the Biblical edict from Luke 12:48: “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required.” I have never overtly publicized my story, but neither do I shy away from telling it in the interest of helping promulgate embryo adoption on behalf of those embryos still in frozen storage.

I recall a class I had, Introduction to Ethics, at Biola University in La Mirada, California, from which I eventually graduated with a degree in sociology. It was my freshman year there, and we were learning about reproductive technologies, including a section on in vitro fertilization. “Did you know you could actually adopt frozen embryos?” the professor asked the class at one point. Yes, I did know. When the class concluded that day, I approached the professor and introduced myself. “I’m actually the first adopted frozen embryo,” I said, to her astonishment.

Following my graduation from Biola, I enrolled at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, from which I earned a Master of Social Work degree.

I am now a licensed social worker and a full-time therapist. Meanwhile, I've started my own nonprofit company, Wonderfully Made Adoption Services, Int’l, rooted in my own life story and education and centered on counseling placing families, adoptive families, adoptees, families who have undergone IVF treatments, and birth moms, while also working on helping implement IVF regulations in clinics.

From Personal Story to Public Advocacy

My advocacy really began in 2001, before I was even old enough to understand the issues. I was two, asleep in my father’s arms in the hearing room when my mother testified in Congress against embryonic stem cell research that was thought at the time to hold the promise of curing many debilitating diseases.

A few months later, my father’s job as a writer for Golf Digest magazine included a working trip to Castle Pines, Colorado, to cover a PGA Tour event. We traveled there as a family, and when my Dad was at the tournament, my Mom took me to Colorado Springs to visit friends at Focus on the Family, including Dr. Dobson, who asked my mom to do a radio show based on her having testified in Congress. Near the end of the broadcast, he asked that I be brought into the recording studio. I sat on his lap, and he asked me a few simple questions, then asked if I knew any songs and whether I would sing one. I sang, as best I could for a two-year-old, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”

Five years later, I was seated on the dais with my mother in the East Room of the White House when President George W. Bush announced his veto of federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

"Just as she was once an adolescent human being, for example, and an infant human being, she was once an embryonic human being."

My mother was a fearless advocate of embryo adoption and other pro-life causes, setting an example that I have embraced. When the issue of abortion as a constitutionally protected right was to be taken up by the United States Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, I was approached about using my story to file an amicus brief with the Court. I agreed to do so, for obvious reasons. Among those supporting my effort was Princeton University’s Robert B. George, a brilliant man and among the most distinguished professors at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Here is what he wrote, in part:

“Hannah can explain that just as she was once an adolescent human being, for example, and an infant human being, she was once an embryonic human being. The embryo she was, was not something different from a human being that somehow later ‘became’ a human being. The embryo she was was the human being she still is, at an earlier stage of human development.”

“Nevertheless, some people insist on claiming that we ‘don’t know’ when life begins, or that there is some big scientific (or metaphysical, or theological) mystery or debate about it. Joe Biden is one. He says that some people believe that life begins at conception, and he respects that, but he himself doesn’t believe it. Evidently, his claim is that there is indeed some mystery or debate."

“Did I mention that the claim is ridiculous? Just ask Hannah S.”

The Supreme Court concurred and overturned Roe v. Wade.

My biography and eventual advocacy have allowed me to meet many influential people, including President George W. Bush and Vice President Mike Pence. Dr. Dobson was among my most generous and vociferous supporters throughout my life. Through Focus on the Family and Dr. Dobson’s ensuing ministry, Family Talk, I also became acquainted with Gary Bauer, Under Secretary of Education for President Ronald Reagan, as well as a former presidential candidate himself.

My mother and I also met Dr. Alveda King, Martin Luther King’s niece, at a pro-life function in Washington, D.C., and she said to me, “Hannah, I knew you before you were born.” She did not elaborate, though in all likelihood it stemmed from her own long-time association and friendship with Dr. Dobson.

Still Human, From the Beginning

What we choose to believe does not change what life is.

I readily acknowledge that I owe my life to those who understood the underlying scientific and religious issues. Biology teaches us that life begins at fertilization, and even when embryos are frozen and contained in frozen orphanages, the evidence is unassailable. These are children, just at an earlier stage of development.