“…Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord.  …She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly…‘O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a...child.’”

1 Samuel 1:9-11

Oh how the deepest longing of our own hearts are so intimately united with those of Hannah’s!  We long to give birth to a child.  We long to see the face of the love we share with our husbands.  We long to fulfill the vocation of motherhood to which we all feel called.  Yet, for reasons we struggle to understand, bearing children does not come easily for us.  Some of us struggle with primary infertility and have yet to be blessed with children.  Others have struggled and gone on to have children, by adoption or conception, and are still working through the pain of their journey.  For some, having children came easily at first, but they are now facing secondary infertility.  Many of us have borne the burden of miscarriage and some the even heavier cross of recurrent pregnancy loss.  While our stories are all unique, we all feel the same pain and longing of waiting to be blessed with the children we so deeply desire.