Don't Ignore your relationships while going through IF! NIAW blog

So as anyone who read my blog last week knows, it's National Infertility Awareness Week!  This year resolve.org's theme for NIAW is "Don't Ignore Infertility".  In honor of this theme, I have changed my facebook page pic to this:

And my profile pic to this:

(Feel free to steal either)

But for Resolves "Bloggers Unite", they asked to write a blog on the theme of "Don't Ignore...." I decided the perfect thing to talk about is relationships.  No matter if you are "out" in your infertility struggle or silently suffering...relationships are what gets us as a human race through tough times.  I know many times, the shame of IF, or a treatment cycle failure, or the depression that can come from both makes us want to crawl in a hole.  Shut out the world.  Hide behind a protective shell.

But I find the best coping mechanism to make it through this life-altering struggle I have; is my relationships.  I have my support group of IF'ers -who truly know what it's like in the struggle.  I have my husband...my rock...who is struggling right beside me to love me and hold me when I have a hard day.  I have my family, to remind me they love me no matter what.  My friends, to laugh at the little things in life, cheer me on, and cheer me up.  I could not have made it these past (almost) three years without them.  

So for any of  you out there struggling.  I'm not saying, talk about IF with everyone.  Or even that you need to tell your family and friends.  But don't ignore them! Keep yourself open to life and the people in it!  Don't shut yourself away.  Embrace the people who care about you, because even if they do not know all that you are going through...they can help just by their presence, their smiles, their hugs.  

Infertility should not be ignored.  But neither should your relationships.  Don't let them become a lost battle in the war of infertility that you are fighting.