I have been nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award by Waiting for the Bump, The Cat Bed, The Chronicles of the Unfruitfulness, Laughs N’ Love, The Boy Who Never Lived, Drunk Storks, Living and Traveling in Africa and Plan B Chronicles. Thank you so much! I was really surprised by the nominations and am also truly honoured! Please know that I absolute love each one of your blogs, and love that you are part of my life! Thank you for everything!
Rules for winning this award are very simple, here they are:
1. Thank the person who has nominated you. Provide a link to his/her blog.
2. List the rules.
3. Include 7 facts about yourself.
4. Nominate 15 other bloggers and let them know that they have been nominated.
5. Display the award logo and follow the blogger who nominated you.
Here are 7 facts about myself:
- I have had 3 smart phones in less than a year and a half due to my husband’s desire for me to have the best phone – iPhone 5, Samsung S3, Blackberry Z30. The Z30 is by far the best! I love my Blackberry so he’s not allowed to sell this one!
- In my university days I spent a few summers living and working in Whistler, Canada (home of the 2010 Winter Olympics). Part of me will always feel at home in Whistler.
- I am currently reading The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan. It’s a compilation of short stories, so it is different then my normal type of book, but it’s pretty good.
- I am a Pisces, but I don’t really know anything about astrology so I have no idea what it really means to be a Pisces.
- I will always write/spell in Canadian/British English. This means there is a u in words like colour, honoured and neighbour.
- I love exploring cities. I love the way they are designed; the way I feel walking down different streets; the various interpretations of public art; the first sights from the air when flying into a city; and, the different smells and sounds. I love everything about cities.
- I lived in New Zealand for few months when I was 18. I wore a uniform; went to a catholic school; learned to play rugby; and, met some amazing people.
While, I am humbled each time I receive such a nomination, I always have an internal struggle as I decide whether or not to participate in these chain-letter type blog posts. But, once again I have decided to participate because I take it as an opportunity to share blogs that I love. Some make me laugh; some make my cry; some make me question life and/or myself; some inspire me and some do all of the above.
So, if you see your name below, know that I consider you and your blog truly lovely and consider this your nomination. And, if your name is not on the list and I follow your blog, I absolutely adore your blog too so feel free to participate if you want to!
And in no particular order, here are some of the blogs that I think are absolutely lovely:
If you like this post, please feel free to share it and please return to myperfectbreakdown.com to follow my journey.
Over the last few weeks, I have been posting chapter reviews from Justine Brooks Froelker’s upcoming book Ever Upward: Overcoming the Lifelong Losses of Infertility to Own a Childfree Life. So far I have read and reviewed Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.
Today, I want to share my review of Chapter 5 – Evolving Relationships
As you can tell from my other reviews, I have been enjoying reading snippets of this book. I have been enjoying learning more about Justine and the path her and her husband (Chad) have chosen for themselves after multiple unsuccessful IVF procedures. As Justine tells her story, I have always been left wanting more, and have also felt connection with her journey as we both share in the experience of losing our babies to miscarriage. While, we are bound together in our shared expierence of loss, our paths have been different. Justine’s path has been largely about an inability to conceive and maintain a pregnancy through the use of a surrogate. Whereas, my journey is defined by an ability to get pregnant and a subsequent inability maintain a healthy pregnancy. But, this chapter bridged our differences, and I felt connected to her in a whole new way. At times, it was almost surreal reading her story because some elements were so similar to my own that it was almost too hard to believe.
This new found connection meant that I enjoyed this chapter immensely. The part of the chapter that really spoke to me was her discussion of how two of her friends were negatively changed through her infertility journey. Almost like an additional casualty of the infertility experience, adding insult to an already injured heart.
Justine discusses the emotional impact that losing these friendships caused her. For me, it was spot on to my own experience in losing two of my own friends.
She discusses the jealousy we harbour when a dear friend becomes pregnant, yet the sheer happiness we feel that they have avoided the perils of infertility and that they will get to parent a child.
She also discusses the hurt when a friend chooses to put distance between us and them once they become parents. The hurt of not being able to be part of their lives, or the lives of their new child.
The disappointment that comes with being cast aside, for whatever reason.
The hurt that goes along with not being accepted by our friends due to circumstances beyond our control.
She goes on to share the soul crushing, hurtful comments people make when they disagree with our choices and our reality.
For me, dealing with hurtful and insensitive comments from people who I thought would have behaved better has been a real challenge for me. Unexpectedly losing one of my best friends to our recurrent pregnancy loss struggles has been one of the most hurtful things I’ve experienced. I have also had someone who went through infertility themselves make very hurtful comments to me, which has left our friendship in disarray as I had to walk away from them in order to save myself from more hurt. I honestly didn’t realize that people could be so insensitive, and that people could be so hurtful. So for me, reading this chapter, reminded me that I am not alone in my experiences.
Justine also reminded me to continue to cherish our true friends who have stood by us and cheered us along with each step we have taken. She has reminded me to continue to nourish and treasure the friends that we continue to hold onto, and to let go of the incapables in my life who will probably never understand.
Needless to say, I am hooked on Justine’s booked and looking forward to reading the entire book shortly.
Her book is available to pre-order now or to purchase on October 1, 2014 at www.everupward.org.
If you like this post, please feel free to share it and please return to myperfectbreakdown.com to follow my journey.
My Perfect Breakdown 