Busy Day

I had a busy day.  Today, Annie from Cradles and Grave, The Elusive Embryo and I met for lunch today.  It was a last minute get together for fellow IF bloggers in the Twin Cities, MN area.   We had a nice time, just chatting, exchanging stories and experiences, and even networked for jobs!  But all in all, it was just a nice feeling to be around people that can relate to each other about the infertility struggle even though our stories and journeys are so different.  Annie even gave us gifts - pomegranate jelly, a symbol of fertility!  Thanks Annie!

I did a quick research on pomegranate.   According to wikipedia, in Judaism, pomegranate is a symbol of righteousness, because it is said to have 613 seeds which corresponds with the 613 commandments of the Torah.  It is also a symbol of fruitfulness.  To the Greeks, pomegranate is a symbol of abundance, fertility and good luck.  In Christianity, the fruit, once broken, it is a symbol of Jesus' suffering and resurrection.  In Hinduism, the fruit symbolizes prosperity and fertility.  In Vietnam, the pomegranate flower is the symbol of summer.  Since the pomegranate has such symbolism to fertility in so many cultures, we must be on to something right?  I'm gonna be stocking up on pomegranate juice too.

K, friend of a friend, emailed me this morning asking if I am part of a Christian infertility support group that was meeting tonight.  I attended this group almost 3 years ago but had stopped attending after a couple of meetings.  It used to meet every Tuesday night and it conflicted with another meeting I had on Tuesday nights, so I stopped going.  However I am still on the mailing list.  K noticed my name and asked if I was going tonight.  I had not planned on going just because I have not been attending for so long.  Plus back then, my Babe was not keen on going, and most people there were couples.  However, since K was going for the first time, and my Tuesday night commitments were taking a hiatus for the summer, I decided at the last minute I would attend too.

I was so glad I did.  I met some new and very fun people.  It was very casual, and it was so easy to just be honest and talk about stuff "normal" people would probably be uncomfortable about.  We had some a lot of laughs, and also some discussions from a bible study on infertility.

One of the couples were just starting to consider adoption when I was there last, and now they have a 2-year-old son that was adopted.  They had an earlier adoption that fell through because the birth father wanted custody after the baby had been in their home for 7 days.  It was a devastating time for them.  Another couple there had just started considering adoption when I was there last, and now, they have been "in the books" (waiting to be contacted by a birth mom) for 2 years.  One lady, the last time we met, she had just adopted a baby boy from Ethiopia and 6 weeks after she got home, she found out she was pregnant.  Her baby is not 2 1/2 years old.  The others that were there were mostly women without their husbands.

The group used to meet weekly, but many couples have moved on to either having babies of their own, or have gone on to pursue adoption.  So they decided to split the group up into 2, one focusing on infertility, and the other focusing on adoption.  So now the infertility group only meets once a month.  Who knows, someday I may even attend the adoption group.  Even when the meeting was officially over, people hung around just to chat and get to know each other.  I left the meeting feeling really great, so I am planning on going back next month.