About

Welcome! My name is Kathy and I have been blogging since April 2007. I started writing in part to update some of our family and friends who had shown us, through their love and support that they wanted to share in our journey trying to expand our family. We dealt with secondary infertility (SIF) and pregnancy loss for over five years (between 2004 – 2009).

At first I used my blog, then called Three of a Kind Working on a Full House…, as a way to keep track of what happened during our Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) cycles and then with our pregnancy/journey with our daughter Molly, who had a rare, severe and fatal combination of congenital heart defects (CHD) and heterotaxy/left atrial isomerism. Molly was born and died on April 17, 2008 at 29 weeks 5 days gestation.

Amazingly we somehow managed to conceive again on our own and our child Abigail (a.k.a. Abby and more recently Gail) was born with a healthy heart in September 2009. Soon after they were born I renamed my blog to Four of a Kind. We feel so blessed and lucky and continue to try to take this journey one day at a time. I also like to share some on here about parenting our 20-year-old adult child Sean, now 14-year old Gail and add other tidbits about our life and experiences, to keep all of this in perspective.

A few months into blogging in 2007 someone found my blog and shared about one of our failed In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) cycles on Melissa “Stirrup Queen” Ford’s Lost and Found Connections Abound (LFCA). From there I slowly began to learn about the wonderful Adoption, Loss and Infertility (ALI) Community in the blogosphere and connected with Mel, who I had the pleasure of meeting in person when she was visiting Chicago (where I live) for BlogHer 2009! I have been incredibly grateful for the relationships and bonds that I have made through reading and commenting on others’ blogs, as well as from receiving comments on my own blog.

After we lost our baby Molly in 2008 and then went on to have Gail in 2009, I was in somewhat of a fog — still dealing with my grief, as well as balancing caring for our older son and newborn daughter. I did not blog very often in 2010. In 2011 I seemed to find my voice again and have tried to prioritize taking time to write, to read and to comment more ever since.

In February 2011 I decided to “come out” about my blog, which had always been public, but not everyone in my life was aware of. I have experienced some growing pains since, but overall I am glad that I chose to be more open with my friends and family in real life about my blog.

In 2012 I decided to move from Blogger to Self-Hosted WordPress and changed the name of my blog to its current title: Bereaved and Blessed.

I was primarily a stay at home mom since our oldest child Sean was born in October 2003 until I returned to the traditional workforce full time in August 2021 at Northwestern University (NU) in Evanston, as program assistant supporting two professional masters programs (one focused on analytics/data science and the other information technology). In September 2023, I moved into a new role at NU as a Career Advisor with the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. I was also an American Council on Exercise (A.C.E.) certified group fitness instructor (for 18 years) and taught classes part-time at a church in our old neighborhood (Beverly) in Chicago, from May 2005 until the pandemic closed the business in March 2020. I love to exercise and practice yoga. In April 2014, I became a health and fitness coach and started Fit & Healthy with Coach Kathy.

Before we moved back to my hometown of Evanston in March 2022, I was very involved in our neighborhood parish where I taught religious education classes, helped with youth ministry, as well as Adult Faith Formation, and served on the leadership team for our Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP) retreat program. For many years I considered myself to be a progressive/liberal/open-minded Catholic, with a strong and questioning faith. However, more recently I identify as agnostic. I also participated off and on in a perinatal bereavement support group called “Caring Connection” at the hospital where our children were delivered for over ten years.

Prior to when my husband Bob and I started our family, I worked in the traditional workforce in recreation/program management. I have a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Leisure Studies: Recreation/Program Management from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. I have worked at park districts with teen, senior citizen and summer camp programs. I have also worked with high school and college students in leadership programs (both faith-based and secular).

After everything my family and I have been through dealing with SIF and loss, and then my being diagnosed with moderate generalized anxiety disorder in November 2013, I realized how much I love to write and to try to help and support people through difficult and uncertain times in their lives. I intend to continue to use what I have learned as a “wounded healer,” in my vocation as a mother and health and fitness coach, as well as any other outlets I may choose to share my gifts through in the years to come.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for visiting!

You can also watch this video which tells the story of our journey through secondary infertility and loss. It is a photo montage set to music paying tribute to the lives and memories of our children who left this world too soon.