Bio

I am a bereaved and blessed, fit and healthy, ally and advocate, mom, writer, group fitness instructor, and coach, with three children (two here and one in Heaven) finding joy in the journey after dealing with secondary infertility and loss for five years and being diagnosed with moderate generalized anxiety disorder in November 2013. I have been married to my college sweetheart since 2000 and we live on the southwest side Chicago, Illinois, in Beverly, with our 19-year old and 13-year old children.

I have been blogging at Bereaved and Blessed (formerly Four of a Kind) since 2007. My blog is on Redbook Magazine’s Blogroll: The Best Infertility Blogs, allParenting’s Best Infertility Blogs and Circle of Mom’s Top 25 Moms with Inspiring Families. I was a contributing editor for Exhale Literary Magazine, wrote weekly for The Today Voice from July 2012 – June 2013, was a speaker at BlogHer `12 in New York City, and part of the Listen to Your Mother Chicago 2016 Cast.

I am a wounded healer who is passionate about helping others learning to cope and find joy when life doesn’t go as we hope, dream and plan (whether due to due to infertility, loss, illness and/or other circumstances), as well as to work towards our health and fitness goals. I am an American Council on Exercise (A.C.E.) certified Group Fitness Instructor and teach classes part-time. I love to exercise and eat healthy (most of the time), which is therapeutic and keeps me in shape. In April 2014, I became a health and fitness coach and started Fit & Healthy with Coach Kathy.

Connect with me on FacebookInstagram, and Twitter.