this post is part of a paid sponsorship by Ferring Pharmaceuticals. all opinions are my own.

most look at these pictures and assume our journey to parenthood was easy… i’m guilty of it and i’ve been there.
we’ve been there.
we’ve sat together, holding hands and heard the words ‘you can’t have children.’

1 in 8 couples struggle to get and stay pregnant.
we are 1 in 8.
all four of these sweet faces? they’re all ‘fertility’ babies and we have one precious angel baby we’ll see someday in heaven.

if you’ve been here for any length of time, you know i started writing in this little corner of space on the internet because when we were in the trenches of infertility, there was little to nothing out there in terms of support. it was taboo to talk about our miscarriage, let alone the inability to get pregnant again on our own or dare i even say use a donor to help grow our family??

we heard it all:
‘just keep trying.’
‘keep practicing and it will happen…’
‘my cousin’s friend just stopped trying and then they got pregnant!’
‘do you really want everyone to know your business?’

but surely you wouldn’t tell a diabetic {zach is diabetic} that he should hide his blood sugar monitor. or that if he just kept hoping his blood sugars would regulate he wouldn’t need insulin…it’s just not that simple. in fact, it’s impossible. zach relies on medicine every day to manage his diabetes and in our case, we needed modern medicine to grow our family…and while we certainly went through different times when we felt our bodies had failed us, we weren’t going to be ashamed of our journey or our family.

we went through treatments with our reproductive endocrinologist to get each of these sweet faces…we knew what we were up against each time we prayerfully decided to ‘try again’. never would i have dreamed that these beautiful babies would be ours.. but here they are and i’m constantly in awe that they’re ours.

at the time, our insurance did not provide coverage for any step of ‘treatment’ and navigating access was a nightmare…but it doesn’t have to be. My Fertility Navigator offers resources you may need throughout your infertility journey like understanding what questions to ask your insurance benefits provider and getting all of the information you need to decide the best way forward for you and your family.

it’s time we start talking about our stories and stand together so no one has to travel this lonely, trying journey alone. it’s important couples seek a specialist sooner and ask the right questions about insurance coverage and feel empowered to speak up about their fertility issues and experiences to support one another.

it’s time we #TalkAboutTrying … a hashtag used to destigmatize infertility and support, encourage and connect women + couples in their fertility journey.

as always, a huge thank you to ivory lamb photography for capturing our c r a z y crew and making it look so beautiful!