FAMILY MIRACLE 'IT'S MORE THAN WE COULD HAVE HOPED FOR'

Tauranga's Anna and Kyle became parents thanks to embryo donation

- Monique Balvert-O'Connor

There's a very special kind of poignancy wrapped around Mother's Day for Anna Keogh. The emotion is immense for this woman who'd started to believe she'd never be a mum and then found out, on Mother's Day eight years ago, that she was pregnant, thanks to the extraordinary generosity of another couple.

Parenthood for Tauranga-based Anna and husband Kyle has come courtesy of embryo donation - a blessing at the end of a long journey fraught with many emotional hurdles. They have two daughters with names that speak of that time - Tasia Belle, seven, which means “beautiful resurrection”, and Aeisha Tilly, four, meaning “alive and well, glorious in battle”.

It has been quite the fight, beginning the day they were told Kyle's sperm count made conception unlikely and IVF a possibility. But then, more tests later, those plans were dashed also when they were categorically told that Kyle's sperm, while having all the DNA in place, could not be used for IVF. There was a 0% chance they could have their own genetic children.

“Nothing can prepare you for that news,” shares Anna. “It's an unforgettable time when everything turned a shade of grey, when I thought, 'It's the same feeling as death, this grief.”

Anna and Kyle spent years flip-flopping around the sperm-donor idea. Anna was keen, but Kyle wasn't. Would he be able to bond with a child that was genetically Anna's but not his?