Infertility
by Monica Carpentier
A pregnant friend of mine was lamenting about being overdue and I thought to myself that "overdue" was a perfect way to describe infertility. You feel so overdue to have a baby. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that in many ways, infertility is similar to pregnancy. It's just that instead of morning sickness, you have heartsickness. Instead of physical exhaustion, you have emotional and mental exhaustion. Instead of having occasional emotional outbursts that bewilder your husband, you have lots of emotional outbursts that bewilder your husband. Instead of craving ice cream and pickles, you crave anything containing folic acid as you know it would be good for "the baby." Instead of making you clean the house, the nesting instinct makes you buy adorable little baby outfits and wrap them up in tissue paper and tuck them in the back of the drawer. Instead of being afraid that you'll make a terrible mother, you are afraid you'll never be a mother. Instead of getting bloated, you keep your tear ducts hard at work. So, in a strange way, infertility is like being pregnant. It's just that instead of carrying your baby in your tummy, you carry her in your heart. May the Lord bless us with comfort, strength, and hope.