What I Learned from October ICLW

I am so glad that I participated in October's ICLW!  I knew I would meet some great people and read inspiring and heartbreaking stories.  What I didn't realize is how much I would learn in the process.  I am officially hooked!

Here is a summary:

Many people were inspired by the SELF article "Breaking the Silence" including "As Fast As My Baby Can"  and myself at "Finding a Voice for Infertility".  I think I will have to write a letter to the author (or at least the editor of the magazine!) for inspiring so many women to find their voice!

I learned about a cool tool virtual bookshelf (http://www.shelfari.com/)  from Stress Free Infertility.  Thanks... I have already started recommending this to others :-)

 I also found Nirvana Mamma and her "Blog for a Cause".  I will for sure be putting in my request for NIAW in the spring.

 Lastly I learned how different people can read the same post and get vastly different meanings and intentions.  It really shows how much our own experiences play a role on how we perceive our environment!

Why Blog? My 1st IComLeavWe!

I have been “blogging” for a little more than 2 months. It has been a struggle for me to find the right words to say (and to hit the publish button once I do have the words). I currently have 34 posts started and only 9 finished. I am excited to participate in my 1st IComLeavWe and make myself write and finalize 7 posts in 7 days! My intent is to inspire hope, to help, and to advocate for infertility from an average Jane’s perspective. I hope you can relate to me and I hope to meet and get to know many more of you than I do now.

I originally didn't start a blog so I could actually blog. Um yes that is what I said… let me explain! I have been working on a project on and off for a few years that will help women that have gone through infertility treatments, like I did. The work was mostly “off” until recently but I won’t bore you with the details! So I was looking at reviving my efforts in this and here goes the story…

I was originally searching for ways that I could distribute my Infertility Treatment Tracking Survey so I could get feedback for an infertility web-based application that I am developing. I did what any other person would do and I googled it! I, of course, got about 1,790,000 results in 0.26 seconds.. or so I was told.

I really didn’t know what I was looking for in my google search but I surely didn’t realize that I could set-up a free survey with google docs and then embed it in a blog for free! (No I don't work for google ;-) On the first page of results I found this blog, A Girlfriend’s Guide Through Infertility.   I was only looking to get my survey out in a more efficient, organized and professional manner until I was able to get my website up and running. I didn’t want to send individual emails out to my IF community and then spend time compiling the results based on their email responses back to me… there had to be a better way! I was inspired by the “girlfriends” and so I gave it a whirl.

Soon after I started the blog/survey I read the article called "Breaking the Silence on Infertility" by Jennifer Wolff Perinne and it inspired me to write my first post. I wanted to provide this article to the women that were coming to my blog to complete the survey.  It was at that time that I started to read other infertility blogs and saw all the wonderful things that you all are doing. I really wanted to be a part of this community and I am regretful that I didn’t “join” earlier. After all, I have been part of the IF community for so many years (over 5 years). How had I discounted blogging all together? I don’t think I knew the true community that exists here OR that I had anything to really say that anyone would actually read or care about. I am so happy that I have found that both are true.