St Valentine’s Day is upon us so we’re thinking about love and marriage this week! We dived into the archive and found a wealth of wisdom from our writers on how to build a marriage worth CELEBRATING! Whilst most of our readers are married, a lot of the advice shared in the following blog posts is fruitful for boyfriend/girlfriend relationships too, so we’re confident there’s something here for everyone to enjoy and learn from. Add some SPICE into your relationship SPICE refe

As you may have heard, our theme for 2026 at The Fruitful Hollow is “celebration”. To launch this series, we asked our team members to share what celebration means for them on an infertility journey. As always, their responses were colourfully varied and personal. C.J. (Director) I was surprised at how many people in our leadership team were drawn to the idea of celebration as our theme for 2026! It forced me to look at how I viewed my life, and what meant the most to me. Wh

“Grief is not a state but a process, like a walk in a winding valley with a new prospect at every bend.” — C. S. Lewis From the moment you wake up until your head finally hits the pillow, grief from infertility can feel like a weight you can’t outrun. Some days you come up for air; other days, it swallows you whole. I had known grief before, and it usually passed. But during a difficult adoption process, grief settled in and refused to leave. From the beginning, something abo

If you’re like me in any way, you thrive on connection. That sense of belonging, of sharing the inside joke or seeing someone’s eyes light up when they see you, the hum of energy in a crowd or the chuckle to yourself at reading a loved one’s silly text. The community to support you when all else around you doesn’t make sense. Even the most introverted person needs connection, though it could look differently than an extrovert like me. Even if your village is small, it is stil

There was a time in my infertility journey when I would hold my breath every time I logged into my social media accounts. I dreaded the all too familiar way my heart would drop whenever a new pregnancy announcement popped into my feed. The reaction came quickly and sharply before I could filter it – a hard punch of pain, followed by a slowly building jealousy. Always, it was rounded out by shame – HOW could I feel such ugly feelings in light of new life? What is WRONG with me

To All Who Have Been with The Fruitful Hollow Since the Beginning and Anyone Just Stumbling Upon Our Ministry, the deepest and most affectionate welcome. My name is CJ and I am humbled to greet you as the new director of The Fruitful Hollow after the remarkable 5 years our ministry has spent under Lauren, our fearless first director . I would like to take a brief moment to introduce myself and share a little about the journey that led me to writing this. I was born with Turne

Can you believe it’s the last day of 2025?! Today feels like the perfect time to share this news with you. I come with some news and a heart full of joy, gratitude, peace and hope! It is time for me to pass on the torch as the director of The Fruitful Hollow. If you’ve been around since our humble beginnings, you probably know the whirlwind story of how we got started. God hit me on the head with the idea of this ministry after I had been yelling at him while I was driving.

“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