Holiday shopping. Christmas cards. Massive amounts of delicious foods. The company holiday party. Egg nog. Latkes. Hot toddies. Wishes. Hopes. Gifts. “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Or so they tell me.
The winter holiday season is like one long emotional gauntlet, starting sometime around Halloween and definitely by Thanksgiving, running breathlessly toward an exhausted finish line somewhere after New Year’s Day. It doesn’t matter whether you’re going through infertility or not: the holidays are a double-edged sword of joy and dread. Just thinking about everything I have going on in my personal life in December is exhausting, let alone professionally. Heidi has a great reminder about the power of the RSVP.
December holidays can be a tricky time during infertility. Losses may be felt more acutely in the season of gifts. Prayers may seem unanswered in a season of hope. And wishes suddenly turn into pipe dreams. And to be perfectly honest? That’s okay. Ashley gets at that pain in her piece, This Year. Meanwhile, Elaine talks about her inner struggle with wishes this Christmas.
In this season of giving, The Infertility Voice™ offers our own unique holiday gift guide: a meditation from me, the gift of thriving from Kirsten, and the gift of fragility from Jessy. As we stand at the precipice of one year behind us and a year unknown before us, Melissa reflects on the cycle of endings and beginnings while Liz digs into the uncertainty of it all. But let’s not get so bogged down by the struggle: there’s plenty of opportunities to find joy and maybe even laugh a little! Melanie walks us through her hilarious 12 Days of Infertility this holiday season.
Other news of note this month…
- We welcome author Alicia Young with excerpts from her monthly ASK AN EGG DONOR™ column. Ask her your egg donation questions and get them answered!
- Looking for a little extra holiday support? Sign up for our daily Holiday Survival Emails. Trust me: you’ll love them.
- Check this out: HAVEABABY is a rad documentary (I just happen to be in!) that follows couples struggling with infertility and a controversial IVF contest that offers them hope. I’ll be talking more about HAVEABABY on our social media channels. Check it out and help them reach their Kickstarter goal before December 10th!
- Speaking of holiday wishes, hopes, and gifts: Aspire Fertility is a brand-new group of fertility centers coming to Houston, Texas in January 2016, advancing the benchmark of fertility patient excellence and care. To help promote their opening, Aspire Fertility is giving away five IVF cycles at a 50% discount! To enter, simply join their mailing list and opt-in to the sweepstakes. (Don’t worry, it’s not a contest: five winners will be selected at random.) Entries will be accepted through December 31st.
Wishing you each nothing but joy, light, and love during this holiday season. Thanks for reading this month’s issue and we’ll see you next year!
Happy happy, merry merry,
Keiko Zoll,
Editor-in-Chief
