Infertility

A version of this article was originally published at She Loves Magazine in 2017. I never expected the word barren to label my life. I was a vibrant person. I am an introvert to be sure, but I wasn’t shy or backward. I loved life and loved living it. By the time I was in my early twenties…

My coffee was growing cold where it sat on the arm of the Adirondack chair. I stared across the fields where windmills spun along the horizon. I didn’t want to pick up the coffee again. I knew it would taste bad. I knew the moment the liquid hit my tongue, the nausea I was ignoring…

During my single years, I would have told you I knew marriage wouldn’t solve all my struggles. Of course not. I wasn’t naïve. I understood that marriage brings its own issues and building a family with someone isn’t just aromantic drive on a starlit night. No duh. But now, looking back, I did kind of…

I’m thankful God is patient and kind and longsuffering because I’m pretty sure if He wasn’t, He’d get tired of my prayer cycle. I know it’s a cycle and it’s about a month to 38 days in length and it starts with me praying that I’ll get pregnant again, followed by sorrow that I’m not,…

The book of Ruth begins with barrenness. The land is barren as a famine sweeps through, and Naomi, despite having born children, is now a childless widow. The truth of the matter is that Naomi thought her story was done. She was Marah, Bitter, and the life she dreamed of was shattered around her—the pieces…

It was almost a dozen Christmases ago now when I decided to search Scripture for the stories of infertility. There are many references to barrenness throughout the Bible, but there are seven specific women identified as infertile, and as I took time to read and reflect on each of them, I found some fascinating things….