Announcing an Infertility Support Group Blog!

I know, I know...I may be getting over my head with blogging commitments, especially since I manage to update this one less frequently than I like! However, the little infertility support group that I seem to have somewhat inadvertently started here in St Louis is expanding rapidly, as more and more women quietly express an interest in attending. A friend recently asked me if I would consider opening it up to the rest of the Stake (LDS congregations in St Louis) rather than just my own congregation. Based on the incredible response I got once I simply started talking to women in my own congregation, I believe that this resource is desperately needed in our community. After making sure my sweet hubby was ok with our becoming the rather more public face of a larger, more organized infertility support group, I moved ahead. I let our Stake leaders know about the group, and launched a blog for the group, www.TrustingHisTiming.blogspot.com. The name for the blog came from a recent article I had read in which a quote from Elder Dallin H Oaks had profoundly affected my perspective on infertility, and helped me understand that the hand of the Lord was present in all things, even -especially! - the timing of if/when we will be blessed with a child. I launched the new blog primarily as resource for women I do not know by name or face to personally invite to the group to get acquainted with us and what we do and talk about. Our support group is pretty informal- mostly we sit and chat or eat at fun restaurants or go on ice cream runs - as well as talk and talk and talk about everything - but especially the challenges we are each facing in our personal journeys toward having a child, whether a child of the heart thru adoption or a biological child of our own. I have been amazed at how much information I have learned form gals who have spent a few more years on this road than I myself have yet. I have also been amazed at the joy, hope and comfort we find in sharing such personal sorrow, in knowing I am not alone, and in learning not to focus on how much I hurt in a given month, but on how to love and serve another woman who is hurting more than I. In addition to short entries authored by members of our group, the blog will also be the place to find announcements about when or where we are next meeting, and a way to allow women become involved in the group who might not yet feel comfortable attending the meetings or making a phone call. I will also link helpful articles websites and blogs about the topic as I, or other women in the group, come across them. (Or as readers recommend them). I am very excited about this new blog as well as the infertility support group, and can feel the hand of Lord guiding this endeavor. We have seen so many miracles already! Please feel free to follow the new blog and/or join us at the group meetings, or send your friends.