Couple's photo series finds humor in their struggle with infertility
Infertility can create years of difficult, emotional turmoil. For Whitney and Spencer Blake, they decided to lighten their personal experience with humor.
Using a tongue-in-cheek approach, the Boise, Idaho, couple injected some sharp satire in the failed fertility treatments and the long adoption process they had to endure. They took traditional light-hearted pregnancy photos and then added a unique spin, representing what they went through trying to grow their family.
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"When we were in the heart of our struggle with infertility, we sometimes used humor as a coping mechanism," the Blakes told Mashable. "We realize [humor] is not how everyone deals with challenges, but for us personally, for this particular problem, we found that having a sense of humor made infertility a bit more bearable."
In a post titled, "How I Feel About Infertility Now (As a Mother to Two Boys)," Whitney described the seven years of infertility the couple had to go through.
"Infertility used to be such a consuming part of my life," she wrote. "Between monitoring my temperature first thing when I woke up in the morning to sometimes daily doctors appointments… between the charts, kits, pills, drugs, and tests… between other people’s baby showers and pregnancy announcements… between the frenzied hope and desire at the beginning of the month to the acute heartache and despair at the end of it, it’s kinda hard to forget even when you’re trying not to dwell on it."
The couple hoped their slanted take on infertility could let people suffering the same know they are not alone.
Infertility Awareness Week, April 24 through April 30, inspired the couple to take the pictures and post them on their blog, On An Adventure. There, they describe the photos as, "funny in a horrible, that’s-so-true kind of way."
"Since humor is one of our coping mechanisms, we thought we’d use that to hop on the creative announcement bandwagon in our own infertile way," they wrote on their blog. "Of course, we’re not suggesting infertile people announce their deepest struggle with a silly meme. Nor are we making fun of pregnant people. We’ve just found that laughing at our problems sometimes makes them feel smaller, and couldn’t resist the chance to poke fun at infertility."
"Though the road can seem lonely, you are not alone. There are others who have felt the same pain you are experiencing," they told Mashable. "Just knowing and connecting with some of those people is what helped us most during our toughest [times]."
As of now, "through the miracle of adoption," as they put it, the Blakes have adopted two adorable boys, Mason and Kellen.
[H/T: Buzzfeed]
Additional reporting by Diana Shi.
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Topics Family & Parenting
I have done neat stuff all over these United States from sailing lessons on the Puget Sound to motorcycle maintenance on the backroads of upstate New York. My professional experience extends from newspaper reporting in the mountains of Eastern Oregon to fixing espresso machines throughout Kentucky. I also have kept a cat alive for 10 years.
