Matthew and Jenna are 21/2-year-old fraternal twins. They share cute round faces, wide, inquisitive eyes that don’t miss a thing and cheekbones a model would die for.

They also share a history that would make them the talk of the playground if anybody their age remotely cared: They were adopted nine months before they were born, in the form of embryos created and frozen six years before that.

But, for Jim and Barbara Seebock, Matthew and Jenna are simply the answer to a prayer, even if the method of conception they chose — “embryo adoption” — represents yet another twist on what used to be the straightforward business of conception.

The Seebocks decided a few years ago to start a family. But, Jim says, “I can’t have kids, and Barbara can.”

The Seebocks could have used donor sperm to fertilize Barbara’s eggs. However, the couple decided that conception would involve either both of them or neither of them.

They began to explore adoption. But, while listening to a Christian radio station, the couple learned of the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program of Nightlight Christian Adoptions, a Fullerton, Calif., adoption agency.

Megan Corcoran, Snowflakes progam coordinator, said the program involves placing with prospective parents embryos that are created, but not used, by other couples who have undergone in vitro fertilization procedures.

In standard in vitro fertilization, eggs taken from a woman and sperm taken from a man are combined outside the womb and in the laboratory. Resulting embryos then are implanted into the woman, who carries one or more of them to full term and gives birth.

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