Sometimes, we make plans but life throws us a couple of curveballs. Zac and Brittney Wolfe understand this so well. They are about to become a family of six after struggling with infertility for years. They could never have predicted this, but could not be happier.
Zac and Brittney recently adopted their daughter Charlie, who was born in July 2023. While waiting for a child through adoption, Zac and Brittney also heard about embryo donation, a process where couples donate leftover embryos from IVF. Around the same time that Charlie’s adoption was finalized, Zac and Brittney found out she was pregnant with triplets.
"All of a sudden, things got crazy," Brittney explained to Insider. "It wasn't planned, but Charlie's adoption and the pregnancy happened at once." The more the merrier.
Zac and Brittney first met in college. After Zac’s 2011 car accident, which caused him to become a wheelchair user, their friendship grew into something more. They got married in 2015 and live in St. Marys, Pennsylvania. They wanted to start a family.
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"After a year of trying to conceive without success, we decided to seek medical advice to determine if either of us had an issue," Zac explained. "We were nervous, due to my injury, and were unsure if we would be able to have a child naturally. After we were both cleared and underwent many tests, everything came back good."
Brittney and Zac would spend five years trying to conceive. They used intrauterine insemination and IVF treatments, spending around $100,000 to no avail. Eventually, they decided to explore adoption.
Brittney and Zac created a website to connect with families looking for adoptive parents. “We have both always dreamed of having a big family and infertility made us realize that it isn’t about how we become parents that matters to us — it is about parenthood itself — and that steered us in the direction of adoption as our path to parenthood and we couldn’t be more excited to begin our journey,” they wrote.
Adoption was also a journey, but eventually they got their happy ending. A neighbor helped connect them with Charlie’s biological mother.
Brittney and Zac were present at Charlie’s birth. “She is such a cutie and stole our hearts the second she was born,” they gushed.
Brittney and Zac were in for another plot twist. While they were going through the adoption process and waiting to meet expectant mothers, they learned about embryo adoption through the National Embryo Donation Center. This is when couple’s donate their unused, leftover embryos from IVF to other couples. The first transfer did not work, but the second try implanted successfully. Around the time Charlie’s adoption was finalized, Brittney and Zac learned they were expecting triplets. She is due in November 2023.
Brittney and Zac could never have predicted their unexpected journey to parenthood but are so grateful for it. “As I have done over the past 12 years, you adapt — and overcome all challenges,” Zac mused. “If there is a will, there is a way.”
The Wolfes urge others to consider adoption. “There is an unbreakable bond waiting to be formed, and a child out there who craves the love and stability that only a family can provide,” they concluded.
