Different Trips to the Same Place: The Second in a Series on Infertility,
Deciding to have a baby and actually having one can take two very different paths. As I experienced a child rearing plan very different then the one I originally designed for myself, I know what it feels like to have to change courses. After going through infertility, miscarriages, birth and adoption, this poem guided me throughout it all. Written by an anonymous author, I wish I had the ability to thank her for the hope and support it gave me throughout all those years.
Not only did this help me in my initial quest to get pregnant, but for reasons I write about in later posts, my desire to have a second child seemed even stronger and more desperate. Whether your infertility or child rearing issues are for the start of a family or for building upon one, I think it helps to have something like this to give it perspective and to know you aren’t alone.
Not only did this help me in my initial quest to get pregnant, but for reasons I write about in later posts, my desire to have a second child seemed even stronger and more desperate. Whether your infertility or child rearing issues are for the start of a family or for building upon one, I think it helps to have something like this to give it perspective and to know you aren’t alone.
Different Trips to the Same Place
Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to a beautiful and exotic island. You’ve heard it’s a wonderful place, you’ve read many guidebooks and feel certain you’re ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it an be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip.
So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to the island. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for this wonderful place. It seems there is no seat for you. You’ll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a fantastic trip, you wait…and wait…and wait.
After a long time the ticket agent tells you, “I’m sorry, we’re not going to be able to get you on a plane to the island. Perhaps you should think about going by boat.”
“By BOAT?” you say!!!! Going by boat will take a very long time and it costs a great deal of money. So you go home and think about not going to the island at all. But you have long dreamed of this amazing place, and finally you decide to go by boat.
It is a long trip, many months over many rough seas. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to the island two or three more times, marveling about each trip.
Then one glorious day, the boat docks on the island. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage and you find yourself comparing stories with others who have traveled by sea rather than by air.
You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to the island, still you know God has blessed you in a special way; appreciation of this place and the beauty of this island is not the way you get there, but in the place itself.
Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to a beautiful and exotic island. You’ve heard it’s a wonderful place, you’ve read many guidebooks and feel certain you’re ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it an be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip.
So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to the island. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for this wonderful place. It seems there is no seat for you. You’ll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a fantastic trip, you wait…and wait…and wait.
After a long time the ticket agent tells you, “I’m sorry, we’re not going to be able to get you on a plane to the island. Perhaps you should think about going by boat.”
“By BOAT?” you say!!!! Going by boat will take a very long time and it costs a great deal of money. So you go home and think about not going to the island at all. But you have long dreamed of this amazing place, and finally you decide to go by boat.
It is a long trip, many months over many rough seas. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to the island two or three more times, marveling about each trip.
Then one glorious day, the boat docks on the island. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage and you find yourself comparing stories with others who have traveled by sea rather than by air.
You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to the island, still you know God has blessed you in a special way; appreciation of this place and the beauty of this island is not the way you get there, but in the place itself.