Although it is easy to focus on the hard stuff, the infertile experience is not without moments of clarity, growth, and hope. It goes without saying that these are as varied and specific as the losses, discouragements, and pains of the journey. Hope has a way of audaciously reaching into impossible moments to soften hardened hearts, open closed eyes, and empower the weary soul.

It is important and powerful, but hope is also a tricky thing to share with someone going through infertility. Although the storyteller’s goal is to uplift the listener, it can often have the opposite effect. Stories of pain, loss, and loneliness lead to connection and understanding, but hope is different–it challenges. It asks us to dare to believe there could be something beyond the mire in which we trudge; that there could be something good, and that it could be for us. One slogs rather than travels through infertility; the length and shape of the road is different for everyone. Sharing moments of hope can be a reminder that light exists out there, somewhere, but often, we must have our own experiences with hope if we are to be changed by it. 

This month, we are focusing on hope at Re-Storied. These stories are personal reflections about times when light broke into darkness, if only for a brief moment. Perhaps these stories will serve as a reminder to you of the unending cycle of death and new life (the daily rising of the sun, the turn of the seasons) that is present in us as it is in the rest of the natural world. Our hope for you is that you will be encouraged by these stories–that they will refresh your memory of past hopeful experiences, or bolster your spirit until your own moment in the light arrives.

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.”
Anne Lamott