The Truth About Trying

About a month ago my friend Keiko Zoll from Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed invited me to participate in a public awareness campaign that was being co-sponsored by Redbook magazine and Resolve (The National Infertility Association). She told me that they were looking for people who were dealing with infertility (or those that had struggled with it in the past) to make a video in which they finished this statement: “I wish I’d known…” The idea was to start a grass-roots campaign and discussion that will help others in the infertility community and beyond to find out “The Truth About Trying.”

As many of you know, in recent years I have become an advocate for those who have been touched by infertility and loss in their lives, so it didn’t take much to convince me to join this effort to spread the word about the realities of family building. I was encouraged not to spend a lot of time putting my video together, but rather to be real and speak from my heart about my experience and what “I wish I’d known.”

I decided to keep it simple. I wrote out what I wanted to say, because I knew I would be more comfortable having thought about it ahead of time, and I didn’t want to forget the main points that I hoped to make in my video. I enlisted my husband Bob to be my videographer and my son Sean to be my teleprompter. Sean held my script in front of me, next to Bob, while he held and operated the camera.

We did the whole thing in one take and though the perfectionist in me would have preferred to re-shoot it for various reasons, I was pleased with how it turned out. Also, though Bob and Sean were willing to help and supportive of my doing this, they were not looking to make an evening out of my “little project.”

I could have gotten all dolled up for the occasion, but the day we recorded my video, it was a Sunday evening, the Bears were playing and I decided to “keep it real” with my Chicago fan gear on and shoot this as I look more often than not, with my hair pulled back in a pony tail and my glasses on, just sitting at our kitchen table, as I would if I were talking with a friend over a cup of tea.

This “The Truth About Trying” campaign officially kicks off tomorrow morning, however my contact at Redbook magazine (how often does one get to use that phrase in a sentence?!) assured me that it was fine if I wanted to go ahead and start spreading the word tonight. I am doing this in part because my weekly blog hop/writing exercise, Time Warp Tuesdays, goes live every week just after 12:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning and I wanted to get this one written and posted before that one goes up and the blog linking, reading, commenting and hopping commences!

So without further ado… Here is my “I Wish I’d Known” video from Redbook’s You Tube Channel:

I would love to know what you think about my video and any others that you take time to check out! I am really impressed that Redbook and Resolve are working together to bring awareness to such an important topic and one that is very close to my heart. Infertility is more common than a lot of people realize (1 in 8 women in the United State are affected) and it’s something that I don’t think that anyone should have to go through alone.

If you want to learn more about this “No-Shame Campaign” and check out some of the videos that celebrities and other everyday people (like me) have contributed to tell “The Truth About Trying,” you can click here. You can also make your own video and upload it to Redbook’s YouTube channel by clicking here.

Also, tomorrow October 18 at 2:00 p.m. (EST), Redbook is hosting a Twitter chat to discuss the #TruthAboutTrying, which my friend Keiko, who first told me about and invited me to participate in this awesome campaign, is moderating. Thank you Keiko! I can’t wait to participate in the discussion tomorrow!

Thank you for reading, as well as for your support and encouragement as I venture out a bit further from my little corner of the blogosphere to try to help spread the word and raise awareness about the realities of infertility and loss. I hope that by participating in this campaign and sharing some of my story, that I will help make others people’s journeys through and experiences with infertility and loss more bearable.

Also, as some of you already know, since I posted the link on Facebook and Twitter, earlier today I was on Redbook’s website (in anticipation of this campaign kicking off tonight and tomorrow) and noticed that they had posted their own Blogroll of what they consider to be 25 of The Best Infertility Blogs. I was curious to see which blogs they chose to highlight on it and skimmed through it expecting to see “the usual suspects,” including many of the most well known and respected infertility blogs that I am aware of and typically make appearances on these kinds of lists.

You can imagine my surprise (and excitement) when I noticed that my blog is listed, second from the bottom! Pretty darn cool! I am guessing that my contribution to this “Truth About Trying” video campaign may have influenced their choice to include my blog and link to it on their list. However, regardless of why or how they decided to highlight my blog, I am very happy and feel extremely honored to be included in this list. Thank you to all those who already have congratulated me on Facebook and Twitter today, your kind words and support mean so much to me! xoxo