Laughing with Sarah

I should have posted this sooner, but here is an article I found that talks about about the church and the ways that clergy and churches can be more aware of and more sensitive to infertility and pregnancy loss affecting members in their midst. In the article, entitled " Infertility: Comfort, Comfort My People ," Deborah Patterson says, Children, indeed, are a wondrous gift from God, but sometimes the path to parenthood is a very challenging one. There are many avenues to blessed parenthood for those who would truly know the joy of raising a child, and the Church can play an important role in supporting that journey. Things to keep in mind for my own ministry, surely, and things to encourage other pastors and churches to think about as well.

Annunciation by Madeleine L'Engle To the impossible: Yes! Enter and penetrate O Spirit. Come and bless This hour: the star is late. Only the absurdity of love Can break the bonds of hate. After Annunciation by Madeleine L'Engle This is the irrational season When love blooms bright and wild. Had Mary been filled with reason There'd have been no room for the child.

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will

A couple weeks ago - the Monday before Thanksgiving - Matt and I met with a RE for an initial consult to talk about IVF and how we might move forward. The very first thing he said to us after all of our initial introductions and handshakes was, "Well. You've had a rough go of it, haven't you?" So very kind. He put us right at ease, which was a good thing, since the next half-hour or so was filled with an overwhelming amount of information. The most detail-oriented part of the conversation was also the least interesting. He gave us all of the details about what an IVF cycle entails, but Matt and I have been doing enough reading about it that we basically knew all of this information before we walked in the door. More interesting - and overwhelming - was talk of success rates, insurance, money, and schedule. I was a little worried when we walked in that part of the consult would be us having to make a case for why we thought IVF was the right move for us. Be