In the shadow of their 21-year-old son’s death, Cristina Rapti-Tzelepi and her husband welcomed a daughter — giving their family a new chapter when they needed hope most.

ATHENS, Greece — Just months after losing their 21-year-old son in a road crash, Cristina Rapti-Tzelepi and her husband faced an unimaginable decision: whether to try once more to bring a child into their home.

The answer came from the past.

This week, the couple welcomed a baby girl in Athens using an embryo that had been frozen for more than 22 years — a rare and emotionally charged journey that unfolded under intense time pressure.

Rapti-Tzelepi, 54, was racing against Greece’s age limit for women undergoing in vitro fertilization. She had only about two and a half months to complete the procedure and obtain approval from the country’s national authority.

“I only had a 2½-month window,” she said. “It was stressful, but with inner strength and our doctor and his whole team by our side, we got through every obstacle.”

On Wednesday, the long wait ended. The baby girl was born weighing 3.49 kilograms (7 pounds, 11 ounces).

Two days later, the hospital room was filled with pink balloons and flowers as the new parents held their daughter and struggled to put their emotions into words.

For Rapti-Tzelepi, the birth was not about replacing the son they had lost. It was about finding a way forward.

“We decided to give life a second chance, to make a new start, bring new life into our home and keep our family’s story going,” she said, sitting on her hospital bed in black pajamas.

Her hopes for her daughter are simple.

“My wish for her is to grow up healthy and happy, full of joy like our first child, who filled our home with laughter.”

The birth also highlights the extraordinary possibilities of modern reproductive medicine. Embryos can remain frozen for decades, preserving the possibility of pregnancy long after they were originally created.

The Greek baby’s embryo had been frozen for more than 22 years, making its successful use particularly unusual. Last year, an Ohio couple welcomed a baby boy from an embryo that had been frozen for more than 30 years through a process known as “embryo adoption,” a case that received recognition from Guinness World Records.

Dr. Kostas Pantos, Rapti-Tzelepi’s gynecologist and head of the Hellenic Society of Reproductive Medicine, says cases like this also raise questions about Greece’s restrictions on fertility treatment for older women.

With Greece facing a sharp decline in births, Pantos argues that the country’s age limits for assisted reproduction deserve renewed consideration.

For the couple, however, the debate over numbers and regulations is deeply personal. After a devastating loss, a child has arrived carrying an embryo that spent more than two decades in suspended time.

And in a family changed forever by tragedy, her arrival has brought something they desperately needed: a reason to look toward tomorrow.