Life Rafts

Sometimes I come across a quote or an article that rings so true to me, I cling to it like a life raft. Right now I am reading "The Infertility Cure" by Randine Lewis and in the beginning, there is a passage from the author that brings tears to my eyes. Not tears of sadness, but because there is another person out there who so deeply understands this situation (and that person just happens to be both a doctor and an acupuncturist, who also struggled with infertility). Here it is:

"I can't know the pain you may have experienced in your quest for conception - the disappointment, the frustration, the hope and the hopelessness of each negative pregnancy test. Perhaps you, like me, have felt the heartbreak of conceiving and losing a child. Perhaps, like me, you have given the power over your own body to doctors in the hope that somehow they will make everything better. I don't know why we have been chosen to undertake such a painful journey, why we must go through such struggles to bring our own children into the world. But I do know that when we look into our babies' faces, they will never have to wonder if they were really wanted. Ours are the children who, no matter how they came to us, will look at their parents and know, from the deepest place in their heart, how much we cherish them, and how we labored to give them life. And in that there is no greater security and no greater gift."

I also think I love this so much because it makes it seem like there is a reason behind it, that its not just senseless suffering. Maybe we were destined to have this struggle so that we'll be better mothers, so that our children will grow up knowing that they are cherished every single day. Today, I am grateful for life rafts.