National Infertility Awareness Week #NIAW2024

It’s that time of year again….it’s National Infertility Awareness Week® (NIAW).It’s that time of year again….it’s National Infertility Awareness Week® (NIAW). This year’s theme of #LeaveYourMark…. by sharing your journey and letting others know they are not alone. I’m really loving this theme, and accepting this call for action. Many times we think we can’t do much in our spheres, but that is a lie. We having callings and purposes on our life that we are created to fulfill. This call to action speaks directly to me, since felt alone during our struggle. So for this year’s NIAW, this is how I’ll be leaving my mark:

Read More

National Infertility Awareness Week #NIAW2023

This year's theme for National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) is #FlipTheScript.  It's about changing the conversation to help others understand infertility, learn that it's not just an old stigma, and that it's real.  Infertility affects millions of people who struggle to build a family, and the impact is far reaching.

I love that NIAW has a new theme every year; it reminds me of my own "word" of the year.  

Read More

Gratitude

Being thankful.  Grateful.  Gratitude.  Being thankful for what I do have (and not to be upset about what I don't have). The years of avoiding my family and those uncomfortable questions, was really about me focusing on what I didn't have.  My family was not all in our face about when we were going to have a baby.  Yeah, there were some isolated family members and dear friends of the family that said some less than helpful things, but overall, it was my own insecurity about our difficulty in trying to have our first child.  It was my own ungratefulness of not appreciating what we did have, but only focusing on what we didn't have.

Read More

We ❤️ Houston

Houston. It's where I call home.  It's where I was born (literally, downtown at St. Joseph's hospital). As a homegrown Texan and Houstonian, I'm still at a loss of words of what has transpired in the past couple of weeks.   When I started this post last month, I was going to share about an adventure that we had; but then Hurricane Harvey happened.  So, I scratched that post and here we are.  

Read More

Fireworks

There was a fireworks show on July 1st in our town.  I have no clue why there was one on Saturday, but it was totally unexpected, and such a nice surprise and treat.  While I was sitting on the back porch watching them, I started to reflect on a time in our marriage that lacked surprises.  There was a lack of "fireworks" during the course of the fertility treatments. I had become so laser-focused on conceiving

Read More

National Infertility Awareness Week® (NIAW)

When we were growing our family from my husband and I, it was a five-year journey before our first little one arrived.   We did not share that we were struggling to build our family.  We did not speak up.  But this time around, it's different.  As we are walking through the fertility journey again, we are speaking up, and I challenge you to "Listen Up!"  

Read More

Happy New Year

In our home, we don't set New Year's resolutions, but we do set goals.  We got our fancy 2017 Passion Planners over a month ago, and have already started transferring important dates into them.  I have a tendency to over schedule and over plan, which is a behavior that my accountability partner is helping me walk through (thank you, Karna!).   The over planning and extreme goal setting was pretty extreme, especially when we were trying to have our first child.  We had been married for four years at the time, and we were all about S.M.A.R.T. goals, and put a timeline with every goal we set.  So along with our other goals for that year,

Read More

Christmas 2017

Jesus was born as our greatest and perfect gift.

When the greatest and most perfect gift would be a baby, I had to be humbled (in a grumbly way) and reminded that Jesus was and still is the greatest gift every Christmas.

Allow us to reflect upon the true meaning of Christmas; God's perfect gift for each of us.

From "Away in a Manger"

Be near me, Lord Jesus

I ask Thee to stay

Close by me forever

And love me, I pray

Reminded of James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above

 

God’s ways and thoughts are HIGHER and BETTER than mine. His plans are NOT like my plans “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD.  “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  (Isaiah 55:8 NLT).

I am not incomplete because I am __________.

Also, if you want to connect more, you can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.  Please don't hesitate to reach out!

I can't believe this is happening

While we were trying to get pregnant, I couldn't believe infertility was happening to us. When we got pregnant with our daughter Julia, I couldn't believe it was happening.  And now, I can't believe God is using me to share hope through a devotional for women going through infertility.  My sorrowful "I can't believe this is happening," has changed into a joyful "I can't believe this is happening." 

Read More

What's in the package?

I have a package.  I've had it since Wednesday, but I think it arrived on Tuesday. And I still haven't opened it.  I know.  The suspense is really pulling one me, but I am going to wait.  I want to share what's inside with friends and family....even if it's virtually.  

Join me live on Facebook or Periscope on Sunday, November 20th at 9am EST.  

~Brandi

PS.  I'll only be live for about 5 minutes.  Bedhead, PJ's, and coffee are welcome!