Episode 10: Sleep Training Worked for Us!

The Embryo Adoption Podcast

After 15 years of marriage with no children, Chris & Rachel suddenly became parents of twins! Find out how sleep training was key to their finding a new routine, and how a stuffed bear not only helped Rachel through her fear of needles but will endure as a sentimental keepsake for their kids. All that, and the role their faith played, in this episode of The Embryo Adoption Podcast.

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FULL TRANSCRIPT (Please note there may be spelling, grammatical, and factual errors as this transcript was generated by AI.)
00:00
Mark Mellinger
It's a great story of faith amid infertility. And finally, answer in embryo adoption. I'm Mark Mellinger, your host, and this is the embryo adoption podcast brought to you by the National Embryo Donation Center. You can find out more about us at Embryodonation.org. Chris and Rachel Chumita are with me today, and they are joined by their twins. You can see that if you're watching the video version. Ezekiel and Elizabeth. They're about seven months old as we record this, and they are cute as a button family. It's great to see you.

00:36
Rachel Chumita
Good to be here.

00:38
Mark Mellinger
I love it. And your kids are being so good. We'll see if that continues throughout the whole episode. It may not, and if it doesn't, that's okay. I will try not to keep you too long. I love that you have a shared faith now, but you actually didn't when you got married. Can you two walk me through how that happened?

01:00
Rachel Chumita
Sure. I was raised in a Protestant church. Chris was raised in a different faith that he wasn't neither of us actually were believers, although I kind of had a more solid upbringing, if you will, in terms of Christianity and my background. I knew that Jesus was the only way to heaven. But I, again, wasn't a believer. Over the years, I'd ask Chris, over time, you do know that Jesus is the only way to heaven? He'd be like, no, I don't think so. Just one day, God got a hold of my heart, and I just prayed that he would lead us to a church where I would come to really know him and where Chris would come to know him. God answered that prayer and he led us to a church through his providence and where we did both become Christians. Short story.

02:07
Mark Mellinger
It's an amazing story, and I should say at the outset, you guys have been married I'm not telling you this, but I'm telling our audience. You've been married for a long time. I mean, you were married for 15 years before you had your children, so it was a long road. How do you think being Christians affected the way that you navigated infertility?

02:31
Chris Chumita
I think it helped quite a bit, because when were first married, I have neurofibromatosis, which is a hereditary condition, and since we had no faith in God or in his providence, we decided to have vasectomy very early on in our marriage. After we became Christians, believing in God and His Providence, we decided to have it reversed, and it was considered successful. But then we just couldn't get pregnant. All the tests, the ones we did, just came back. If there's no reason, you're not. We just kind of relied as much as we could on Romans 828 and just went on from there.

03:07
Mark Mellinger
Yeah. All things work together for those who love God as Romans 828. Most of our audience would know that. Just in case you don't and that doesn't always mean necessarily in the here and now. It may mean in eternity. So at least we have that comfort. How did you find out about embryo adoption in the NEDC, by the way?

03:29
Rachel Chumita
Chris was filling the pulpit for his friend indiana, where we met Jen and Aaron Hannaker. Jen was pregnant with Evie at that time, and so were just talking, and she was like, well, she's pregnant. She's like, now this baby is adopted. And I'm like, Wait, what? I asked her about more of it, and we talked for a little while. On our way back to Ohio, I told Chris, I'm like, okay, this is really cool. What do you think about it? Chris knows that I get really emotional around my birthday every year through the years of infertility. He was like, okay, I'm totally on board, but we're going to get a couple of weeks past birthday and make sure that this is still a desire of yours before we just jump at it. The rest is history. It was still committed after a couple of weeks.

04:24
Mark Mellinger
Yeah, and the hammockers are terrific. EVs one of their NEDC babies. They have a couple now. Interesting. You were doing pulpit supply because Chris does have a master's degree in theology, I should say you're not a full time pastor, but you do some pulpit supply. Just doing this pulpit supply over in your neighboring state, Indiana, because you guys live in the Cleveland area. This is how you heard about yes, sir. Embryo adoption. Yes. What was the process of going through the NEDC like? Anything that you'd like to share to prepare other people who are thinking about it?

05:03
Chris Chumita
We thought it was just very easy. Any question asked was quickly answered. The process was very straightforward. The home study group went through.

05:12
Rachel Chumita
Was Snowflakes, I believe.

05:15
Mark Mellinger
Snowflakes family evaluation was very easy.

05:18
Chris Chumita
It was not like the horse stories you hear about people going through other adoptions. We really enjoyed the first trip down in Edict. We thought just meeting the whole staff, how they walked you through the whole process was very helpful and relieved any fears you might have had.

05:33
Mark Mellinger
Well, that's great to hear. The Snowflakes family evaluation is something that some of our families may be interested in. It's an alternative to a traditional home study. We do have a home study requirement with the NEDC, but the Snowflakes family evaluation, the SFE, is good for two years, which is longer than most home studies, so that can be a good option. Also they'll go anywhere in the country to do it. The big distinction is it is only good for embryo adoption. If you're looking for a more flexible option that's good for both traditional adoption and embryo adoption, you wouldn't want to do the SFE, but it can be a good option if you're only interested in embryo adoption like Chris and Rachel were. Your kids are being so good. I love how especially Elizabeth is looking at the camera and wanting to play with that thing.

06:26
Mark Mellinger
Let's talk about them a little bit. I mean, take me to the moment that Ezekiel and Elizabeth were born.

06:34
Rachel Chumita
Well, I will say the one thing that was really scary for me were the shots. And so I don't like shots. Chris always has to go with me to my dentist appointments for that shot.

06:49
Mark Mellinger
These are the shots to stimulate your cycle so your body's ready to do this. Okay, so before we get to the birth, how did you work through that? That's really practical.

07:00
Rachel Chumita
Well, I was scared, but then I thought, okay, it's worth it. What I also did was I got a little stuffed bare, and so I would hold onto it really tight whenever Chris would give me my shots. It was just like a little reminder of why I was getting them done. It kind of made it all worth it in the end. Just kind of that little reminder every time I get my shots, like, okay, this is for what I called it, Booba Bear. My intention was, and still is to pass those bears on to them then for when they have to go through something like a shot. After we found out we had two, we got a second for me to finish my progesterone and oil shots. So I'd hold both of them then. And so now they know. They'll know that's how much I love them, that I went through those shots and Boo Bear helped me, and it can help them.

07:57
Mark Mellinger
That's really good and really practical. I love that. Tell me about when they entered the world.

08:06
Rachel Chumita
It was a Caesarean section, and yeah, it went really well. They were like, this is your son, this is your daughter. It was just amazing. I was opened up on the table and stuff, but then they got me the babies as soon as possible, and it was just like I didn't ever want to leave them, ever.

08:32
Mark Mellinger
Chris? Yeah? Tell me what it was like for you. I mean, you're talking about basically 16 years of marriage with no kids and now twins.

08:43
Chris Chumita
Yeah, it's been a big change, but a change for a good especially with twins. When you'd ask someone with twins, so how was the first few weeks? They give you, like, the wide eyed look, and you kind of know what that looks like now. Especially right now, as they're getting order, they're getting mobile. Like, Ezekiel is very close to walking and Lisa's just starting to crawl, and they're interacting a lot more. It's just so much fun. I always say, to highlight my days when I come home from work and I walk in and say, hey, Daddy's home. They both let out a squill and try to run over to you as much as they can.

09:21
Mark Mellinger
Well, remember that when they're teenagers. Tuck that away in your mind. It's a sweet moment for right now and enjoy it. It doesn't always last that long. All kidding aside, I mean, they're beautiful kids. If you're watching on the video version, you can see that Elizabeth just had a pleasant smile on her face basically the whole time. Ezekiel has been looking at Daddy most of. Describe their personalities and how they have changed your lives.

09:53
Rachel Chumita
Go ahead.

09:54
Chris Chumita
Ezekiel is basically just a ham. He's always just smiling and laughing and he hits his landmarks very quickly. He's climbing up on furniture already and everything along those lines and he's just always so happy. I don't know if you can tell in the video, Elizabeth is just a sweetheart, but she has the biggest eyes, like pussing boots, which I know she's going to manipulate us later with.

10:19
Rachel Chumita
She's just really mild and laid back and she wants held all the time and she has a little cuddle bug and she just yeah, she's terrified of her brother because he's a bull in a china shop when it comes to his sister.

10:39
Mark Mellinger
Have you adjusted to twins life? I mean, I can't imagine having two newborns at the same time, and I know having one is hard. Do you think you've made the adjustment like you've got a routine down?

10:52
Chris Chumita
Yeah, especially now that went through sleep training. That's really helped quite a bit.

10:59
Mark Mellinger
Sleep training? Really? Tell me about that.

11:03
Rachel Chumita
It was rough. We asked a lady who does it. We hired a sleep consultant and so essentially you stay in the room so that they know that you're there, but sometimes you just have to let them cry. It's amazing how quickly because for the first what was that? That was just after six months we started sleep training and so it was amazing for the first six months, every time they'd start to cry, you'd be like, grab them before they wake up their sibling. It was amazing to me how quickly they adapted to sleeping through each other's meltdown. You'd have one like just screaming and the other one would just be fast asleep and so it was an interesting experience. It was intense, but I think we're coming out pretty well on the other side.

11:59
Mark Mellinger
Well, it's a great takeaway for people who do have twins. I love your story. You guys have been so good to share it and the kids have been so good. You've held them the whole time and they've been great. I don't want to make it too long. We're about ready to wrap up. Anything else about your embryo adoption experience or journey that you two felt is important and wanted to share?

12:24
Chris Chumita
I just think it's what's great about needic is it's such a pro life message. It's an area in the pro life movement, I think, that's very neglected because as Christians, we all believe that life begins its conception and there's hundreds of thousands of babies that just need adopted and need a chance to live life. It's something I wish that more pro life groups and other churches would get behind and help promote it. We all really like, too, how Edith can work with people financially as well and how much more affordable it is than traditional adoption and IVF amen.

13:02
Mark Mellinger
It is all of those things. You're right, it is still the corner of both the pro life and pro adoption movements that the church is capital C church is just learning about. Well, no meltdowns. They're just now starting to get a little fussy. It is the perfect time to wrap up this episode. Chris, Rachel and Ezekiel and Elizabeth, I want to thank you all so much. You have a beautiful family and this was so much fun.

13:28
Rachel Chumita
Okay, thank you very much.

13:29
Chris Chumita
Thank you so much.

13:30
Mark Mellinger
If you want to find out more about the National Embryo Donation Center, you can go to our website, embryodonation.org. Again, that's embryodonation.org. I'm Mark Mellinger. This has been the embryo adoption podcast.