National Infertility Awareness Week

April 24th-30th is National Infertility Awareness week. 

Brandon and I have struggled with infertility for 3 1/2 years.  We have completed 3 IUIs, 3 IVFs, and 2 surgeries.  The 3 IUIs were unsuccessful. Two of the IVFs were successful but resulted in miscarriages. After the 3rd round of IVF, Brandon and I decided to begin the adoption process while completing fertility treatments.  We completed our home study for the adoption process in October, and now 6 months later, we have a beautiful, healthy baby boy and we can't imagine our lives without him. 

I will never forget our struggle with infertility and the impact it had on my life.  While struggling with infertility, I can not tell you how many nights I cried and felt extremely sadness. Several mornings it took all I had to get myself out of bed and go to work but I did it. I had amazing friends that always listened to me anytime I need to talk to someone. 

We received several blessings while we struggled with infertility.  Struggling with infertility brought Brandon and I closer together, and our marriage was strengthened. We knew we had to be there for each other and depend on each other to beat our infertility. Brandon and I learned how to support each other while we were both struggling. Three words helped us during our struggle: faith, hope, and patience. We learned to laugh and find humor in every opportunity available. We learned to be thankful for every little blessing (our doctor, nurses, opportunity to do a treatment, opportunity to pay for treatments, opportunity to start adoption process, etc.). I now have some amazing new friendships that were started because of our infertility struggles. These friends  will always have a special place in my heart. Some of the them are now moms or pregnant (Praise God!). 

Most of all, we now have our precious baby boy because of our struggle with infertility. 

Praise God!

I read this on someone's blog this summer (I don't know who said it though): "God paints on a canvas bigger than we can see. While it might look one way in the place we are and the small piece of canvas we can see, God can see the entire picture he is painting and it is something beautiful."  

Keep the faith,

Lauren