Our Stories Blog

All
Article
Infertility

Thinking About Rosh Hashana

Rosh Hashanah is just around the corner, and I usually take this time to assess how my year has gone. I don’t believe in focusing on regret, and how bad [...]

It’s More Than Just A Picture

It's back to school time again. A time that can be filled with many tirggers. Thinking about where and how to post pictures this year? Maybe this year you can [...]

The Journey

Sara and Jeremey were excited to grow their family. Here they were, married for a little over a year. They were adults, yet still so young. They expected life to […]

When Life Seems To Pause

What an exciting day! Friends and family gathered to celebrate the present and the future. It was exhilarating and exhausting, the happiest day of their lives. The beginning of an [...]

Secondary Infertility – A Story of Struggle, Persistence and Hope

@Aviva Braun-Finkler SHARING OUR STORY We struggled for nearly 5 years with secondary infertility. Throughout our fertility treatments, one of the things that continuously inspired me were the articles I […]

Mikvah: A Pool of Tears

I am the walking poster child for infertility. Why? Because I talk about it… OFTEN. When people tell me my kids are adorable, I say “Thank you, they are all […]

Journaling for ART Part 13

The Fellow I had been with that day, knocked on the OR door, the nurse came out, and they confirmed all my information. She told me she would see me […]

Journaling for ART Part 12

Monday morning I had to go back to the clinic for the second dosage of medication. I spoke to the nurse about how awful my experience had been. She apologized […]

Journaling for ART Part 11

The monitoring went well. It was like getting back on a bike. I got used to waking up early, getting to work a little late. No one really thought twice […]

Journaling for ART Part 10: Post ART

After Adeline was born we were so happy. We would look at her little perfectly round face and just marvel at how amazing she was. How lucky and grateful we […]

Journaling for ART Part 9: Trying Again

May finally came, we got through monitoring, we tried our best to stay calm and Zen. I went to acupuncture multiple times a week in an effort to do everything […]

“Being Ready For Anything: A Lesson We Learned On Our Way To Parenthood”

They say hindsight is 20/20. When my husband and I had reached the 10th year in our infertility journey, we thought that maybe we should think about adoption. So, we […]

Journaling for ART Part 8: Understanding Infertility

Over the weeks following our first failed IVF cycle, Akiva and I had several doctors’ appointments to review what did and did not go right. We planned for the future […]

Journaling for ART Part 7: Transfer Day

Monday was transfer day! We spent the morning relaxing and had brunch together. Akiva kept reassuring me about the cycle, telling me that the fact we had gotten this far […]

Journaling for ART Part 6

After approximately two weeks of monitoring, I finally saw my own doctor for the first time. He did the scan and said, I think we are going to trigger tonight, […]

Journaling for ART Part 5: Mother’s Day

At a doctor’s appointment last week, the nurse was going over some details and said, “ok just to clarify, you have been pregnant twice, one carried to full term, the […]

Journaling for ART Part 4

The day was finally here. November 1st I took my last pill of birth control, and today was Cycle Day 1! I called the clinic and let them know I […]

Journaling for ART Part 3

We finally got to the day of our appointment with the Urology department. We had heard all about this man and how he was the person to see when you […]

Journaling for ART Part 2

Around January 2015 a friend of mine asked if I could help her arrange a fundraiser for an organization helping people with infertility. I was so scared. How did she […]

Journaling for ART Part I

Let us go back to the very beginning. It was late July 2014, my husband, Akiva, and I had just returned from a trip to Italy. I had been on […]

Intro to Journaling for ART

For a long time I have wanted to write about my journey through infertility. I have spoken at events multiple times about what my husband and I went through in […]

#ShedTheLight

There is something so special about receiving a gift. Especially if it is one you have wanted your entire life. You know that energy during the Holiday Oprah episode when […]

Listen, and I Will Tell You How to Support Me

A little background to an email exchange between two friends Rachel* and Sarah*: Rachel was asking her friend Sarah, who is a Kallah teacher, some halachic niddah questions from time […]

A Different Kind of Infertility

There is a kind of infertility that no one speaks about but it is so prevalent in our society. No, it is not because of a medical problem or a […]

Infertility Support: Creating Community Where There Is None

OUR JOURNEY Month after month we prayed for a blessing, and month after month we were met with disappointment. Where we had hoped for a new life growing inside me, […]

Memories of Thanksgiving Past

Two years ago on Thanksgiving marks my “rock bottom” of infertility. I had just suffered another miscarriage, from a pregnancy that so much time, energy and money had gone into. […]

HOW DO YOU GO ON?

I am part of a facebook group of women who are going through infertility. Recently, someone wrote a post asking for advice on how to have the strength to go […]

What Hurts The Most

Mother’s day is a hard day for me. My childhood home was a house where every day was Mother’s day (and our mother would remind us of that!). I lost […]

Infertility: A Path to Parenthood

I’m sitting cross legged on the floor with my childhood friend Robin; two pre-teens pinching each other, wondering Are we really here, or Is this a dream? How would we […]

The Infertility Prayer

I remember learning how the Imahot (the Matriarchs) struggled to have children, how Chana yearned for sons. Teacher after teacher would explain that Hashem gives us struggles because He wants […]

Another Curveball

I navigated infertility, and thank God, after the many ups and downs, I now have 4 children. I still speak openly, to anyone who will listen, in the hopes that […]

Sixteen Months and Counting

Sixteen months ago I walked arm in arm with my parents with slow and steady steps to my Chupah to meet my beloved under a canopy of white. Sixteen months […]

The Sunday Blues

When I was younger I would look forward to Sundays. It was the day my family would do fun things together, maybe see my cousins, or go shopping and out […]

What It Means To Have Secondary infertility

When I was in my early twenties, and had just gotten engaged, the mother of one of my close friends didn’t come to our engagement party. I heard later that […]

Chanukah: A Prayer For Miracles

I remember the aftermath of my first miscarriage. Many times people don’t even realize they have had a miscarriage when it happens so early in the game, but since I […]

Don’t Forget Me

A reflection on the emotions related to infertility and friendship: During the past few months I have been asked by some of my friends to describe what it is they could […]

If You Ask How I’m Doing

You know that awkward moment of silence when someone asks “How are you?” and you know that, to answer truthfully would go deep into a conversation neither of you wants […]

My Silent Struggle

My husband and I got married very young, and we decided to push off having kids because we were both in school. As the years went by, we watched our […]

Don’t Judge a Book By Its Facebook Profile

Facebook is a funny thing. You see the best in people: their photos, status updates of awards or vacations. Rarely does someone talk about struggles, depression or suffering a loss […]

Understanding Loss

In this life there are many things to be grateful for… The air that we breathe, that our body is functioning properly, our children.. That’s why when I found out […]

My First Pregnancy – A Lesson in Managing Expectation

I had gotten married “late” at age 31 and assumed since it took a while to find my bashert that having children would come when we wanted it. When it didn’t come […]

I’m Sorry I Didn’t Bring Brownies

When Risa* showed up at our door, two hours into moving day, with a platter piled high with homemade chocolate chip cookies, I promised my nine-year-old self that I would […]

Support Systems – A True Lifeline

In 2012, I was pregnant with my second child. Some of my friends knew the scary drama that came with this pregnancy because I was open about it, I needed […]

What’s in My Bag?

I’m a former Girl Scout, so I like to come prepared. Here’s what I brought in my bag for yesterday’s egg retrieval (ER). This was ER #4, so I’m becoming […]

A Story of Faith, Survival, Loss and of Hope for the Future

Every married couple once they hear the news that they are expecting their first child is overcome with joy: “Wow we are going to become parents!”. For my wife and […]

Grieving the Loss of a Pregnancy

Miscarriage. I’ve heard this word many times in my life. Always feeling that it was far from me, removed from my life, something I would never experience. Sort of […]

Curses into Blessings

An interview with author & fertility educator Julia Indichova MP: The subtitle of your second book, The Fertile Female is “How the power of longing for a child can save […]

My Mother’s Day Egg Retrieval

Once upon a time, I thought I would surely be a mother by now. Years ago when we started trying to build a family, I anticipated that it would happen […]

Celebrating Mother’s Day on the Infertility Journey

Celebrating Mother’s Day When You Are Not a Mother (Yet) Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are very difficult days on the calendar when going through infertility. How do you […]

SURVIVOR’S GUILT

Last year, I was sitting in the Maternal Fetal Medicine department of my local hospital waiting for my 20 week ultrasound. I was very stressed. Many of my pregnancies didn’t […]

One in Seven

I have come to realize that life is the way it is, because Hashem has chosen our paths for us. There is nothing that we can do to change who […]

IVF STINKS, but It’s Not ALL Bad!

In honor of National Infertility Awareness Week 2015, and as I start my fourth IVF cycle of the year (in the past 12 months), I wanted to lay out some […]

Fertility Warrior

“You must be the most interesting couple I’ve treated,” my OB remarked. Embarrassed at the flattery I replied, “Well, you come highly recommended.” This was not your average first pre-natal […]

Why We Chose to Have our Seder Alone This Year

I have a close friend who once told me that she and her husband were having seder alone. At the time, I thought that sounded like the most depressing scenario […]

“Be Fruitful and Multiply”: A Glimpse into the Life of a Childless Couple In the Orthodox Jewish Community

As we all know, things don’t always happen in the time or order we plan. Nevertheless, in the Orthodox community, a challenging cycle evolves manifesting itself in tremendous pressure to […]

Infertility in the Orthodox Community: One Voice

I have wanted to share my story and offer my voice for so many years. I have been waiting, and at times hoping, that I would have the courage to […]

“Well, That’s Suspicious…”

I know I have been away for a couple of years, but thanks to an influx of wonderful people in my life looking for strength in anonymous corners of Modern […]

Unexplained Infertility – Pros and Cons

I remember going to my first appointment with my R.E. (Reproductive Endocrinologist) It was a cold winter day in September of 2008. I was 32 years old, married for a […]

Kvatter- Do or Don’t?

There is a fairly recent custom that at a Bris Milah, circumcision, a childless couple is given the honor of carrying the baby boy into the ceremony. This tradition is […]

A Few Simple Rules For Navigating Your Journey

Time is a precious commodity in the land of infertility, it is important to make it count. 1.YOU are your best advocate: No one wants what is best […]

My Story

My story begins only a few years ago, but Baruch Hashem today, it feels like a lifetime ago. I was married to the first boy I dated, and we were […]