National Infertility Awareness Week

While I know I'm long overdue for an update, I'm in the midst of final projects, papers, and exams at school. This has rendered me pretty useless in the blogging department. But I feel the need to crawl out of my cave today with a very different kind of post.

Normally, I try to keep this place filled with funny stories about my experiences as a first time parent. With the intense joy that comes with the title of "mommy," however, I realize that a similar well of sadness exists for many couples in America who are faced with the possibility that they will never have children or will need to spend tens of thousands of dollars in even trying to build a family. Perhaps this realization hits harder for me because I know one such couple. Our good friends Larry and Keiko found out last year that Keiko suffers from premature ovarian failure. She is only 27 years old, and already she has been told she will most likely never be able to carry her own children. You can read more about their experience in her blog, Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed .

I would ask that you watch this video she and Larry made from her most recent post entitled "What IF". For those of you with children, try to put yourself in this young woman's shoes. She is no different than any of us, yet the stigma that comes with the diagnosis of infertility raises many questions of self-worth and what it means to be a "woman."

What IF? A Portrait of Infertility from Keiko Zoll on Vimeo.

I invite you to take it one step further. Share this video with everyone you know. Post it on your Facebook status, Twitter update, or (if you're a total techno-geek) your Google Buzz.

As Keiko discusses many times in her blog, there is a shame that comes with infertility. Often, even an IF couple's closest friends are unaware of the couple's fight to build a family. By passing this video on to everyone you know, you may be helping the people in your life who secretly struggle with this diagnosis on a daily basis. Let them know it's okay to show their faces, to admit to the world that they can't have children the "old fashioned way," and that they have a support system of friends and family who don't think any less of them because of this. While none of us can change the diagnosis, we can help by promoting awareness for their cause and by making attempts to at least understand the wide range of emotional ups and downs that come with it.

I feel the need to quote the old adage, "Knowledge is power." By educating yourself about this struggle that affects one out of every 8 couples in the U.S., you can empower yourself to be a better listener, a better friend, and a better source of support for these couples when they need it most.

Larry and Keiko - we love you. We know that you will someday be the most amazing parents. And no matter how your children come into your lives, they will be the luckiest, most cherished little people in this world.