[ConservativeStLouisGuy]

(Not sure how many more Parts there will be...so far the series has been very informative.) :-)

[Howie66]

I can only agree that INFERTILITY is a GIFT when it involves LIBERALS (SOCIALISTS).

[Tax-chick]

It is an affirmation that: "I still love you. I love all of you. And I refuse to allow anything to come between this love, whether it be fertility or infertility."

This is a very powerful insight. It resonates for me, as the mother of a large family, just as it should for someone who can't have children at all.

All of us live in a culture that fears both natural fertility and natural infertility equal. Our culture is only comfortable with control. Living with our bodies as they are - whether our bodies have babies, or not - is too terrifying.

[Flo Nightengale]

I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to look back on the years I struggled with infertility as a gift. To be terribly honest, all I can feel when I think of those years of tests, and medicines, waiting, and miscarriage, is pain. Thank God I did finally have a child in my late 30s (after being married 16 years...talk about a change!) I know I’m supposed to be thankful to God in all things, but it’s going to take many more years before I have the perspective to look on that experience with authentic gratitude.

[lsucat]

Thank you for posting this. It took me a few years, but I do see my infertility as a wonderful gift from God. It was probably the most painful period of my life at the time. My husband and I have three children now, all through adoption. I can’t imagine my life without them.

[old and tired]

I'll say upfront that I don't "get" the intense pain infertile couples often feel. But then, we've never had a problem with infertility, although some of our children -biological and adopted - have. I really don't see why adoption is not an alternative. I read articles like this one and I see so much self absorption. I wonder sometimes if it goes side by side with JPII's Theology of the Body? Please, I don't mean to offend, I really just can't empathize.

I saw on Bettnet an adoptive mom compare the fascination of some couples with having a biological child with looking for a pedigreed dog. I'd never thought of it that way before, and was about to post my agreement when Bettinelli's wife called the post cruel so I backed off.

Back in the day it used to be acceptable to wonder why a Catholic infertile couple didn't adopt, but more recently it's become insulting, or at least insensitive.