When Mickey and Samantha Clark picked up the cardboard box that contained a metal tank with their “cryopreserved medium-grade embryos” from their fertility clinic, they could have driven it straight to their new clinic. But they took a detour — one that was well worth it.  “That cardboard box held our future,” Samantha said. “It contained our dreams, our blood, sweat, and tears. It literally contained tiny pieces of us that would change everything we ever thought we knew about life.”

So, when they picked up that box, they realized that, no matter what happened next, it was the day they “officially met” their kids.  “It was the first day we held them and loved them,” she said. “It was a day full of daydreaming and laughter. It was a day full of conversation about trips to the ice cream shop, family vacations to Disney World, Christmas mornings, running around the playground and strolling through the park. We had one day with the thought of infertility being a distant memory and not a devastating reality. We knew that if nothing ever came from that cardboard box that at least we had spent one day as ‘Mum and Dad.'”

For those worried about the safety of those six precious embryos while zipping down the slide, fear not. Samantha said she played it safe: “The box was virtually still the entire photo shoot, but we were still quite nervous! We did get the embryologist’s permission prior to our adventure.” Thankfully, that wasn’t the couple’s only day as Mum and Dad. In August, she and Mickey welcomed triplets!!!!!!!!!!  As she looks at her three babies, she sees something else, too: “I sit here staring at the contents of that cardboard box!”