“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)  My husband and I went through multiple seasons of awaiting. Awaiting every month's pregnancy test, hoping against hope for those two lines. Awaiting the results of endless blood draws and other medical tests to manage and resolve my hormonal imbalance. Awaiting my surgery to better understand why we had not been able to conceive after a miscarriage. Awaiting our Green Card

O Holy night! The stars are brightly shining What if my stars seem so dim and far away Lord? When others seem to rest constantly in Your light and love?  It is the night of our dear Savior's birth Birth. The dreaded word. On a holiday that can wound more than heal for me and for so many others. The little stockings never hung on the wall. The excited pitter patter never reaching my ears.  Long lay the world in sin and error pining What was my sin? Our sin? What do I have to d

Awaiting : to wait for; expect; look for. It is also expecting or looking forward to something, usually with a sense of urgency or excitement. Waiting , on the other hand, is more neutral; simply staying in one place or delaying action until a particular time.  We are now approaching the second Sunday of advent. Are you awaiting  the birth of Jesus or just waiting  for it to come around? Are you looking forward to His coming with a sense of urgency and excitement or are you f

When the Fruitful Hollow team was planning for this Advent season, one word kept coming to mind: “awaiting”. Merriam-Webster has a captivating definition listed: “to remain in abeyance until”. Abeyance: “a state of temporary inactivity: suspension ”. Each week in Advent we will dive deep into the abeyance. Perhaps many of us are intimately familiar with waiting. I’d like you to embrace the suspension in the upcoming weeks and experience the joy that Christmas brings when the

Year seven looks nothing like I was told it would. By now, according to the theology I grew up with, this should be over. God should have answered. His timing should have been perfect. The story should have reached its redemptive conclusion: the testimony with the happy ending where I stand up in church and declare how faithful God was through our infertility journey, baby in my arms. Instead, I'm staring down the reality that I'm aging out. That the door to adoption has slam

I have learned from Joachim and Anne that persistent prayer changes us more than it changes our circumstances. After seven years of praying for a child, I’ve discovered that some of my most profound moments with God have come when I’ve run out of words. Like old friends who can sit together without speaking, I’m learning to simply be in God’s presence with my longing. Joachim and Anne must have experienced this too.

There's a beautiful juxtaposition on this night between anticipation and dread, the not yet and the soon-to-be; the long-awaited and much-feared, a holy tension.

Seasons greetings! It’s tradition in many parts of the world during Advent to send Christmas cards to friends and family members with wishes

When I learned that St. Anne and her husband experienced infertility before the birth of our Blessed Mother, it made me realize that God's..

Before I ever knew that we were infertile, God knew. Yet my husband and I never had any doubt that we were meant for each other. I truly...

My infertility did not go away when we started growing our family. My children did not cure my infertility. That is not their job.

We are Frances and Clare, two sisters and best friends, and care packages are our love language! Frances carries the cross of infertility an

It is a precarious concept to open your mind and heart enough to ponder if suffering is a blessing from God. When I first began to write...

We were in front of the cathedral. It was nearing midnight. The air was crisp, I could see my breath. I was in need of physical healing...

On July 26 the Church celebrates the feast of Sts. Anne and Joachim, parents of Our Lady, and the fourth Sunday of July is therefore known..

A wise and holy priest once told me that we don’t get to Easter Sunday without Good Friday. Simply put, we must go through suffering to...

The side effects from medications and then feeling like an experiment at times would just become too much. I remember crying when an...

God is our fortress Psalm 46 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth...

“Where are you, God?” It’s a question I imagine Joseph might have prayed in the interior of His heart as He learnt the news of Mary...

So, fear not sister. In those places of littleness and longing and emptiness, press into TRUST. And please know that in the remaining days..