#MyFamilyTookExtra to form, and I want my kiddo to know how much he is LOVED. I’ve always struggled with how, or when, or if we would ever tell Alex about his #conceptionstory. As time goes on, I feel it’s extremely important that he knows how much we wanted him.
As part of the Blog Tour for the launch of Extra! for Unpregnant Chicken, I was able to grab a copy of Kaeleigh MacDonald’s new book (you can get yours here).
The story is one that all of us #infertilitywarriors can appreciate, and is a children’s book meant to be read to your kids about how “extra” special they are and how we had to be a little “extra” patient as we waited for them to arrive.
Kaeleigh walks us through the story of a little boy who discovers that sometimes, a baby isn’t as easy to make as we might think. It’s not the simple mixing of ingredients, like baking a cake. Sometimes, these mommies and daddies have to work really hard to make a baby, but we want them so badly, we will go the “extra” mile (or miles, or halfway across the world) to get them.
I can’t give away the ending, because it’s super cute, but I will tell you one line stood out to me in this book.
MacDonald writes, “Their hope for a baby grows first in their hearts…”
This line….I know we can all relate. Our hope for a child – it began long, long ago. We loved Alex before he was born. Before he was a baby. Before he was an embryo. Before he was conceived. Before my eggs were retrieved. Before we started IVF.
We loved Alex when there was just hope for him. And that hope lived and grew in our hearts.
I look at our beautiful hope now, and I try to remember all those years of struggling. How deep down, I knew we would have a baby, I just didn’t know how, or when. But I remember feeling him. I remember the presence of a baby in my home, long before he made his grand appearance. I remember pulling up to a house for sale before my husband and I bought it and I thinking, “That’s the room for the nursery. For our baby.” It’s because our hope for him lived everywhere around us.
We were never guaranteed to have Alex. We aren’t guaranteed much in this life. The “gray area” – that area we all live in when we’re in the middle of a surgery, or a stim phase, or a retrieval, or a transfer, or the 2ww…it’s when hope lives in our hearts.
And even if you’re a mama who didn’t have to go through medical means to conceive, I’m sure you remember the months when you were trying to conceive and the hope you had each month. And maybe even the disappointment you had for a few months before you did get pregnant. That’s the feeling…that’s the hope.
MacDonald’s book reminds us all of our struggle, our journey, and how “extra” blessed we all are. These miracles were wanted, hoped for, prayed for…they are the beautiful result of parents who worked “extra” hard to achieve their families.
And I am extra blessed to know each and every one of you.
#mamawarriors #MyFamilyTookExtra
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You can follow the blog tour and by checking out Fertility Matters and their piece from yesterday as well as Justine’s piece on Ever Upward tomorrow.
