After Losing Their Daughter at 39 Weeks and Enduring Four More Pregnancy Losses, an Idaho Couple Received an Adoption Call Just as Another Baby Was on the Way

Colin Balfe and her husband, Brayden, had recently moved from Washington State to Idaho and were settling into downtown Boise. Married for three years, the couple had been comfortable spending time together before starting a family, believing they would have children when they were a little older. In a first-person story published by Love What Matters, Balfe described how their plans changed unexpectedly and eventually led them down two different paths to parenthood.

In November 2021, the couple received the news that Brayden’s job was being eliminated. The following day, Balfe discovered she was pregnant, giving them another major development to consider while adjusting to their new circumstances. Rather than postponing their plans for a family, they began preparing for the baby they were already eager to welcome.

An Unexpected Pregnancy Gave Them Something to Prepare For

Brayden soon found another job, allowing the couple to focus on their growing family and their plans for the future. They created a budget, began looking for a home in the suburbs, signed up for birthing classes, and reached out to friends and relatives for support. Before long, they had purchased their first home and begun preparing for their daughter’s arrival.

They named their daughter Miclaine and worked through the preparations that often accompany an eagerly anticipated birth. Her nursery was ready, they had celebrated with baby showers, and their car seat was installed in anticipation of bringing her home. According to Balfe’s account, the pregnancy had been surprisingly smooth, and the couple believed they were approaching the moment they had spent months preparing for.

At 39 Weeks, a Change in Movement Prompted a Hospital Visit

One July evening, when Balfe was 39 weeks pregnant, she noticed that she had not felt her daughter move as much as usual since dinner. She tried several things to encourage movement, but the change continued to worry her, so she contacted the hospital. Staff members encouraged her to come in for reassurance rather than relying on assumptions about what was happening.

Balfe woke Brayden, and the couple headed to the hospital together. Once she reached the labor and delivery department, medical staff began checking the baby’s heartbeat, moving from initial monitoring to an ultrasound and further examination. What began as a visit prompted by concern soon became a devastating turning point in their lives.

The Diagnosis Changed Everything in a Matter of Minutes

Medical staff eventually told Balfe and Brayden that their daughter no longer had a heartbeat. Balfe recalled being unable to understand how a pregnancy that had reached its final weeks could end in such a way, especially when they had been preparing to meet their daughter so soon. The couple were left without an explanation for why Miclaine had died.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that a stillbirth is a pregnancy loss occurring at or after 20 weeks, with a term stillbirth occurring at 37 weeks or later. Miclaine’s loss at 39 weeks fell within that term classification. For Balfe and Brayden, however, the medical terminology could not capture the reality of leaving the hospital without the child they had spent months preparing to bring home.

Holding Miclaine Became a Memory They Carried With Them

Following the diagnosis, the couple faced the difficult process of saying goodbye to their daughter. Balfe underwent a cesarean section, and Brayden saw Miclaine first before she was brought to her mother. Balfe later described holding her daughter against her cheek and remembering how beautiful and peaceful she looked.

The couple were able to spend several hours with Miclaine after her birth. Those moments became precious memories, even as they had to confront the reality that they would not be taking her home. Balfe wrote that the physical memory of holding her daughter’s cheek stayed with her long after the hospital visit ended.

Grief Followed Them Home After the Funeral

Returning home meant confronting the nursery and the preparations that had once represented their excitement about becoming parents. Instead of bringing Miclaine into the room they had prepared for her, the couple had to navigate life after her death and make arrangements for her burial. Balfe explained that losing a child also meant facing a future they had never imagined when the pregnancy began.

The experience affected both parents, although they responded to their grief in different ways. Brayden took responsibility for organizing the funeral and reaching out to family members in Washington, while also supporting his wife through the aftermath. Balfe described how he helped her attend counseling sessions and manage her medication as they tried to understand how to continue living after their loss.

Miclaine’s Memory Inspired a Mission to Help Other Grieving Parents

As Balfe worked through her grief, she began looking for ways to honor the daughter she had lost. She started Miclaine’s Mission, an initiative she described as providing free gift boxes containing personalized items and grief-related resources for parents experiencing loss. The goal was to offer families something tangible that acknowledged the baby they had lost.

The initiative gave Balfe a way to carry her daughter’s memory into work that could reach other families. She recognized that gifts or resources could not remove the pain associated with stillbirth, but believed that items honoring a child’s life could still matter to grieving parents. Her story therefore became about more than the losses she had experienced, extending into an effort to support people facing similar circumstances.

The Couple Decided They Were Ready to Try Again

After receiving medical clearance, Balfe and Brayden began trying to have another child. Their desire to become parents remained strong, but their next steps were shaped by the knowledge that becoming pregnant did not guarantee a healthy birth. They also understood that a new baby would never replace Miclaine or erase their love for her.

The couple approached the process hoping they would eventually be able to bring a living child home. At the same time, they had to navigate the uncertainty that followed their previous experience. According to Balfe, conceiving was not the main difficulty; the repeated losses that followed made the journey increasingly painful.

Four More Pregnancy Losses Made the Journey Even Harder

After Miclaine’s death, Balfe experienced several additional pregnancy losses. She described a chemical pregnancy in November, a missed miscarriage at nine weeks in February, and an ectopic pregnancy in May. These losses came as the couple were still trying to process the death of their first daughter.

They then pursued fertility treatment, but another pregnancy ended in a missed miscarriage at nine weeks. Counting Miclaine’s stillbirth, Balfe described five consecutive pregnancy losses. By that stage, the prospect of becoming parents had become a long and difficult journey rather than the straightforward experience they had once expected.

Fertility Treatment Did Not Bring the Outcome They Hoped For

Balfe and Brayden sought help from fertility specialists and underwent genetic testing after the earlier losses. She reported that the test results came back normal, but said they were encouraged to pursue in vitro fertilization, or IVF, as part of their effort to create healthy embryos. They decided to proceed, hoping that treatment might offer a different outcome.

Balfe described starting medication in July, undergoing egg retrieval in August, and having an embryo implantation procedure in September. In October, another pregnancy ended in a missed miscarriage, marking the fifth loss she had experienced. The repeated setbacks were devastating, and the couple began considering how else they might build the family they had long hoped for.

Adoption Had Been Part of Their Plans for Years

Adoption was not an idea the couple came up with only after fertility treatment became difficult. Balfe explained that she and Brayden had discussed adoption early in their marriage and wanted it to be part of their family story someday. During their extended period of pregnancy loss, they began researching agencies, attending adoption seminars, and meeting families who had already adopted.

Those conversations helped them explore the practical realities of adoption while considering what it would mean for their family. They ultimately decided to begin working with A New Beginning, an Idaho adoption agency. According to Balfe, they officially entered the adoption process in February 2024 after spending considerable time thinking through the decision.

They Completed the Adoption Process and Entered the Waiting Pool

The months that followed involved training, interviews, background checks, counseling sessions, medical appointments, and a home study. By the end of April 2024, the couple had completed the necessary preparation and created a book introducing themselves and their family story to prospective birth parents. They were then able to enter the waiting pool for a possible adoption match.

The process required patience because the couple had little control over when a birth parent might select them. Balfe recalled being told that becoming adoptive parents could take an average of two years, a warning that encouraged them to prepare for a potentially long wait. Nevertheless, they soon received an opportunity that they had not expected to come so quickly.

An Adoption Call Arrived After Just Two Weeks of Waiting

In mid-May 2024, Balfe and Brayden agreed to be considered for a prospective adoption involving a young woman attending nursing school who was expecting a baby boy. The couple were excited about the possibility of welcoming a child but did not assume they would be selected. They understood that the expectant mother would make the decision and tried to protect themselves from becoming too attached to an uncertain outcome.

About two days later, an agency coordinator called Balfe with news that the birth mother had chosen them. They had been waiting for only about two weeks, and the baby was due so soon that the agency told them the expectant mother was scheduled to be induced within days. Instead of preparing over many months, the couple suddenly had to get ready for a newborn who might arrive almost immediately.

Mother’s Day Brought Another Surprise They Had Not Expected

The adoption news was not the only major development that week. Balfe wrote that she and Brayden learned on Mother’s Day that they were expecting another baby themselves, even as they were preparing to adopt a boy. After years of loss and uncertainty, they were now facing two very different but overlapping paths to parenthood.

The timing meant they had to prepare for an adopted son while also considering the pregnancy that had just entered their lives. Their circumstances had changed dramatically from the period when they had been unable to bring a child home after Miclaine’s death. In her account, Balfe described the unexpected prospect of going from having no living children to welcoming two babies born less than six months apart.

Callum’s Birth Connected Two Families

Before the baby arrived, Balfe and Brayden met the expectant mother, who had initially planned to raise her son herself. According to Balfe, the woman remained confident in her adoption decision and invited the couple to the hospital for the birth. They also had an opportunity to meet members of the baby’s birth family before the delivery.

The expectant mother had called her son Cooper, while Balfe and Brayden had long liked the name Callum. They decided to name him Callum Cooper, retaining the name chosen by his birth mother as his middle name in her honor. The decision reflected their desire to welcome him into their family while recognizing the person who had given birth to him.

Hearing Callum’s First Cry Meant Something the Couple Had Missed Before

Callum was born at the same hospital where Miclaine had been delivered, making the experience especially significant for Balfe and Brayden. Balfe was able to be present during the birth, supporting Callum’s birth mother throughout the process. When Callum cried for the first time, Balfe heard a sound she had hoped to hear with Miclaine but never had.

The moment did not take away the pain associated with losing their daughter, but it marked a new chapter in their lives as parents. Balfe described feeling an immediate connection to Callum, and Brayden was able to meet his son shortly afterward. They also made room for the birth mother to spend time with her baby before beginning their lives together as an adoptive family.

A Rainbow Appeared During One of Their First Moments as Parents

The couple remained in the hospital for the next two days, spending time with Callum and his birth mother. Balfe helped with feeding and changing the baby, while Callum also spent time in the couple’s room as they began bonding with him. It was during this period that Brayden held his son for the first time and a large rainbow appeared outside their hospital window.

Balfe interpreted the rainbow as a meaningful reminder of Miclaine and felt that her daughter’s memory remained part of the family’s new beginning. The couple had not forgotten the loss that brought them to this point, but they were also experiencing the reality of caring for a living child. The rainbow became one of the moments they remembered when reflecting on Callum’s arrival.

An Open Adoption Allowed the Birth Family to Remain Connected

Callum’s adoption was open, meaning his birth mother understood that she could remain connected to him rather than treating the hospital departure as a final goodbye. The official adoption guide from A New Beginning explains that open adoption can involve different levels of contact between birth and adoptive families, depending on the arrangement. In Callum’s case, Balfe described an atmosphere in which the families were able to acknowledge their relationships and the importance of the baby’s birth mother.

Balfe had worried about leaving the hospital because she knew that adoption could involve powerful and conflicting emotions for everyone involved. She later wrote that their departure was peaceful and that the experience did not unfold in the painful way she had feared. The birth mother’s continuing connection with Callum remained an important part of how the couple understood their growing family.

The Adoption Became Official as Their Family Continued to Grow

Although Callum had been part of their lives since his birth in May 2024, his adoption was not legally finalized until October. Balfe described the courtroom experience as a happy milestone, remembering Callum clapping and banging on the table while those present commented on how comfortable he seemed with his adoptive parents. The finalization formalized the relationship that had already begun when they welcomed him home.

Balfe also shared that the family later welcomed their daughter, Remy, making Callum an older brother. She described the early period with two young children as challenging at times, particularly as they adjusted to the different needs and personalities of the babies. Even so, she wrote about feeling grateful for the chance to raise both children and watch their relationship develop.

Their New Life Did Not Mean Forgetting the Daughter They Lost

Having Callum and Remy at home changed the couple’s daily lives, but it did not end their grief for Miclaine. Balfe made clear that she wished her first daughter could have been part of the family they were building. She and Brayden remained committed to keeping Miclaine’s memory alive and making sure their younger children would know about their older sister.

The Cleveland Clinic’s guidance on rainbow babies explains that the term is used for a child born or adopted after a pregnancy or infant loss, while recognizing that such experiences can bring joy and sorrow at the same time. That combination of emotions is reflected in Balfe’s account, which describes both the happiness of raising her younger children and the pain that remains after losing Miclaine. For the couple, moving forward did not mean leaving their first daughter behind; it meant making room for her memory as their family grew.