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| hope of spring |
If you haven't seen this all over the news don't feel badly, I only just found out about it, too, and although it's a matter close to my heart, I hemmed & hawed about sewing on my ribbon (does IF have one?) and peeling back the exam room curtain.
Infertility is one of the most personal struggles a couple might endure. It is a journey marked by frustration, grief, confusion, invasion of privacy, displacement, chronic loss, uncertainty, and at times, significant expense and devastating isolation. Infertility almost always comes as a surprise--isn't procreating one of the most natural things on earth? Something our bodies were made to do, if nothing else? The sorrow is deep and the chasm between "us" and "everyone else" is wide.
I know it's difficult to fully (or even partially) grasp the complex nuances of a foreign affliction. We are taught that we cannot know another's pain until we've walked a mile in his shoes. You might find yourself saying, "I wasn't called to [your anguish] so I can't understand what you're going through."
Fortunately, this is not true.
The scope of a wider lens reveals that infertility is only one form of trial, hardship, and woe promised us during our time on Earth. If you have ever suffered loss, frustration, uncertainty, isolation, identity crisis, grief, confusion, painful surrender, or broken dreams, you can understand. Apathy takes a foothold where we fail to find common ground for sympathy and love's potential is unrealized.
Though my husband and I are near-professionals in Infertility, to be honest, I hate writing about it because we hate living it. We believe there is purpose, but we wouldn't wish this life on anyone. Yet, while it has been hard to digest, in eating this bread and allowing ourselves to be broken, we have found a hope that transcends our temporary ails. I know there are many out there who need this hope, too.
Romans 5:3-5 of the Amplified Bible says:
Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.
Not many of us are in the steady habit of rejoicing in the face of struggle, but if you've suffered, endured, matured, and emerged from your trials with a solid hope, you can understand and encourage!
If you've never {really} suffered, stay tuned because one day you're going to want to know how to persevere and reach that hope!
And if you're in the middle of it right now, I am committing to writing directly about infertility for the next two weeks, so check in often!
Why two weeks? Though National Awareness is only for one week, I would like to pay homage to the two-week window that every woman trying to conceive dreads--or at least holds her breath through--each month as she waits to learn whether or not this is "the time."
In the coming days let out a deep sigh, be encouraged, know that *you* are not alone, and search with broad perspective for the beautiful buds of hope.
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