A MOTHER’S DAY FULL OF HOPE – BY UFC PATIENT, MICHELLE JOHNSON

For the past several years, Mother’s Day has been a very sensitive and dreaded holiday for me. This year I anticipate Mother’s day full of hope, appreciation and love.

We began our infertility journey the summer of 2013 and found Utah Fertility Center in June of 2014. Dr. Conway and their staff changed my family’s life with the miraculous blessing of In-Vitro Fertilization and we welcomed our beautiful daughter in November 2015.

I had always dreamed of being a mom since I was a little girl. When “it didn’t happen” like I thought it would or when I wanted, it was a devastating reality. But we pressed on. Some days were harder than others and some shots more painful than before and Mother’s Day came and went, multiple times, with only the hope that I might one day be able to hold my own child and have the title of “Mother”. It was a journey. It was a bumpy journey, and it is not over. Infertility will always be a part of our family and our story but I can look forward to a brighter day and know that miracles happen.

So to you hopeful moms, dreading this Mother’s Day, I get it. I do. I have been where you are and I know the feelings that you feel. I know the torture that you feel you are about to face and understand the decision to not to go to church today and to avoid social media, because undoubtedly, someone will say and post how blessed they are to be a mother and yet your arms are still aching for a precious child to fill a hole created when you heard the word “infertile”. Everyone’s story is different but everyone’s hope and goal is the same, and for that I say, “carry on!” Know that you are NOT alone. You are strong, you are worth it and your miracle WILL come.

Happy Mother’s Day!