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‘A gift from God’: Murfreesboro woman’s unique journey to motherhood includes loss, newfound joy




Jenny Rone King bonds with her daughter, Shiloh, who was born on Valentine’s Day, three years after the loss of King’s first child, Everett.Larry McCormack / Main Street Nashville/Mainstreet Nashville

Jenny Rone King bonds with her daughter, Shiloh, who was born on Valentine’s Day, three years after the loss of King’s first child, Everett.Larry McCormack / Main Street Nashville/Mainstreet Nashville

Jenny Rone King had been praying for a baby for 20 years.

While attending Western Kentucky University, King became a Christian at age 19. The experience changed her perspective on life and family.

She graduated with degrees in religious studies and graphic design and ended up working for a campus ministry and later Fellowship Bible Church in Murfreesboro.

“I prayed for 20 some years for a family and kind of got to the point where it was like ‘This doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen,’ “ King said.

In 2016, King met her husband, David. They got married in 2018. Jenny, 41 at the time, was open with her husband that due to her age and medical history, she probably wouldn’t be able to have children.

The couple discussed other options, such as adoption, but just two weeks after their wedding, they found out Jenny was pregnant.

The couple were elated. They both wanted a family with three or four kids.

After the 20-week ultrasound, the midwife called the Kings and said she needed to meet with them.

Shiloh Evelyn Rone King was born from an embryo frozen in 2005.Larry McCormack / Main Street Nashville

Shiloh Evelyn Rone King was born from an embryo frozen in 2005.Larry McCormack / Main Street Nashville

She told them the ultrasound revealed some problems with their baby boy. He had a cleft lip, heart issues and brain issues, among other things.

She referred Jenny to a specialist. Every week, the ultrasounds seemed to show another health issue.

The specialist told the couple he suspected the baby had a trisomy, a type of chromosomal issue, but the Kings opted to not do genetic testing.

“We were committed to carrying this baby and let the Lord take care of whatever happens after that,” Jenny said.

The Kings had friends who had been told their baby had a trisomy, but the baby ended up being perfectly fine.

“If there’s a 1% chance they’re wrong, I want to fight for the 1% and then not ever wonder ‘Did we do enough?’ and ‘What if he was OK?’ “ Jenny said.

Jenny was referred to Vanderbilt, and on Feb. 27, 2019, she and her husband went up to meet with all types of doctors. Ten surgeries were planned before the child’s 10th birthday, including one in his first week.

Jenny Rone King holds her daughter, Shiloh Evelyn Rone King, who was born on Valentine’s Day.Larry McCormack

Jenny Rone King holds her daughter, Shiloh Evelyn Rone King, who was born on Valentine’s Day.Larry McCormack

The next day, Jenny’s water broke. The baby wasn’t due until April 25.

A brief life

On Feb. 28, 2019, Everett Josiah Killian King was born. He weighed 3.5 pounds and was 19 inches long.

As soon as the doctors saw him, they began to give David a list of what was wrong. Everett had a cleft lip and palate, rocker-bottom feet and webbing between his toes. Looking back, David could see they were trying to tell him Everett had trisomy 18

Trisomy 18 means the child has three copies of chromosome 18 instead of just two, according to Vanderbilt. Most babies born with trisomy 18 die by age 1.

Everett’s name means strong, brave and hardy. Josiah means “God heals.”

“We just said God will heal him either here or in heaven,” Jenny said.

The Kings got the trisomy 18 diagnosis the next week and began to make some hard decisions. They decided they wanted to take Everett home so his whole life wasn’t spent in the neonatal intensive care unit at Vanderbilt.

David and Jenny Rone King spend time with their baby boy, Everett, at their Murfreesboro home in 2019. Everett, who had a condition known as trisomy 18, died when he was just 13 days old.Melonie Langan/Mainstreet Nashville

David and Jenny Rone King spend time with their baby boy, Everett, at their Murfreesboro home in 2019. Everett, who had a condition known as trisomy 18, died when he was just 13 days old.Melonie Langan/Mainstreet Nashville

The Kings moved into the hospital with their baby boy for a week until they could take him home. Everett was given a blood transfusion so he could be held for hours without pain.

On March 13, the Kings took Everett home to Murfreesboro. They had a list of things they wanted him to do and people they wanted him to meet. Jenny took him in the garden to get some sunshine. He met their dog, Remi, and many of their friends.

The doctors said that after they removed Everett from the ventilator, they didn’t know how long he would live. Some babies live for hours. Some for days.

After Everett’s ventilator was removed, he was alive for less than an hour.

Some of Everett’s ashes were sent down the Animas River in New Mexico, where David’s parents live. Some were sent down Jenny’s parents’ creek in Kentucky.

Jenny wears some of Everett’s ashes and hair in a necklace.

Everett Josiah Killian King was born on Feb. 28, 2019. He weighed 3.5 pounds and was 19 inches long.Jenny R. R. King/Mainstreet Nashville

Everett Josiah Killian King was born on Feb. 28, 2019. He weighed 3.5 pounds and was 19 inches long.Jenny R. R. King/Mainstreet Nashville

But this isn’t where Jenny’s motherhood journey ends.

Another path to motherhood

In just a few weeks, 11-week-old Shiloh Evelyn Rone King will be able to reach up and play with the necklace that holds memories of her brother.

After Everett died, Jenny suffered a miscarriage, and the couple began to think about the fact that they were probably not going to be able to get pregnant again.

They started looking into other options and learned about embryo adoption.

In the 1990s, when in vitro fertilization became more accessible, embryos were overproduced as doctors wanted to give people as many babies as they wanted.

In the U.S., there are over a million embryos in frozen storage, Jenny said. Some organizations put together an adoption model to match families who don’t need the embryos anymore with couples who would like to adopt them.

In 2020, David and Jenny were matched with a family who created five embryos in 2005 and put them up for adoption.

Everett Josiah Killian King was born on Feb. 28, 2019. He had several medical issues, including a cleft lip and palate and trisomy 18, and lived only 13 days.Melonie Langan/Mainstreet Nashville

Everett Josiah Killian King was born on Feb. 28, 2019. He had several medical issues, including a cleft lip and palate and trisomy 18, and lived only 13 days.Melonie Langan/Mainstreet Nashville

The five were transported in a cryogenic chamber to a clinic in Knoxville. There was a set of three and a set of two. All the embryos in a set have to be used at the same time.

The set of three was thawed, and the embryos implanted last May.

Two didn’t survive the process, but on Valentine’s Day this year, Shiloh Evelyn was born.

The Kings picked her name from a spreadsheet of 270 options. Shiloh is based on Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace, but it also means gift from God. Evelyn means “wished for child.”

Later this year or early next year, Jenny and David plan to implant the remaining set of two embryos.

“Gift from God — that’s totally what these children are to us, however many get to survive as we go through this process,” Jenny said.

The Kings want Shiloh to know her story and be proud of it as she gets older. They also want people to know that embryo adoption is an option for those struggling with infertility.

It’s one of the cheapest forms of adoption, and you get to have full control over the prenatal care of the baby, Jenny said.

“It’s just the craziest process to know so much about her,” Jenny said. “Her first picture is in a petri dish with her sibling.”

From longing for a child of her own to dealing with being the mother of a child who has died, Jenny has had some tough Mother’s Days.

She said she loves that churches want to celebrate family holidays, but there’s always someone in the room who either longs to be a mother or has lost their mother.

More than talking to the parents who have lost a child, Jenny said she would want to tell the rest of the world to be prepared that people have stories that are different than theirs.

Jenny and David have had to come up with an answer when people ask how many kids they have or how old they are.

“They’re suddenly uncomfortable thinking they’ve made us uncomfortable, but it’s like ‘We’re sorry you’re uncomfortable,’ “ she said. “Part of it is the world being more prepared to go ‘Not everybody has the same story as we do’ and there’s usually a lot of pain in people’s stories.”

She said she would also tell grieving parents to just be honest with their grief. The most important thing for the Kings has been people who are willing to carry their tears and be present.

Every year, they celebrate Everett’s birthday with the friends he was able to meet.

“My biggest fear is I will forget him, and so when people help me remember him, it’s a gift because I don’t feel the pressure of ‘He only lives with me,’ because he doesn’t,” she said.

Now, Shiloh gets to celebrate him, too.

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