Children are the greatest blessing, and few people understand this better than Sandra King of Lake Forest, who went on a long journey in order to have her daughter, Mary Grace, now 4.
King got married at 40 and had three miscarriages, the last one after having undergone in vitro. She and her husband, Dan, considered adoption, and finally she underwent another in vitro cycle that was successful.
The heartache of her own journey to become a mother inspired King to start Graceful Conception, a Lake Forest-based full-service egg donation agency. Since starting the business in 2004, King has helped more than 400 women become mothers.
“I believe that if you want a child, you will get that child the way you’re supposed to—through adoption or an egg donor, or however that child is supposed to come to you,” says King, 46. “I knew if I quit trying, I would never have a child, and that was not OK.”
King has offered her home to donors from out-of-town and posts the testimonials she receives families on the agency’s Web site:
“We trust you more than we have ever trusted anyone through this process… which is amazing considering how much is out of our control,” wrote one family.
“I sometimes feel sad about my biological fate but I also feel blessed to encounter wonderful people like you while searching for another solution,” wrote one woman.
King’s latest project is starting a foundation so that people who couldn’t normally afford the egg donation process will be able to have children, too.
“[Motherhood] is the best thing in the world,” King says. “However I can make it easier, I want to do that.”
