We now pause this infertility journey for a commercial break!
I disappeared from the Attain Fertility community for awhile last week. I had to take an unexpected trip to D.C. for work. You see, I don’t just act as the Community Manager for Attain Fertility. I’m also a communications consultant and I do a great deal of both paid and volunteer work for a nonprofit organization for military families.
I haven’t talked about the military family part of my life all that much here on the Attain Fertility blog, but it’s a huge part of who I am. I grew up as an Air Force brat, married a Navy man, and my brother joined the Army and now serves in the Ohio National Guard. I’ve been lucky enough to spend most of my life in communities well versed in the special issues facing military families. But not everyone can simply walk over to their neighbor with the deployed spouse and three children and ask how they can best help. And so the organization I work for spends a great deal of time educating the civilian public and our military and civilian leaders about the issues that are most important to military families – deployment, education, health care, etc…
Last week, I had the chance to travel to the White House to meet with the First Lady’s staff about some of these issues. While I was in D.C., I also headed to Capitol Hill for an event with Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Loretta Sanchez introducing some bipartisan legislation to allow military families to have flexible spending accounts. Then I hit a meeting of the Congressional Military Family Caucus to hear from and speak with Congressional representatives, DoD leadership, and representatives from military family service organizations.
It was an exhausting week but I’m glad that I went. Not just because I hope that I made a difference, but also because it took my mind off of my own infertility issues for a few days! That’s not to say that I didn’t talk about infertility. I found myself having quite a few conversations where I mentioned the unique challenges military families face when suffering from infertility.
We all know just how important timing and patience are when you’re going through treatment, but having to put trying to conceive on hold for a year or more while your spouse deploys can certainly put patience to the test! Military families also face frequent moves, necessitating getting a new doctor (or doctors) up to speed every time. Let’s just say, I feel a bit lucky that my husband is now retired after 20 years of service.
I know this week’s blog isn’t much about infertility, but I didn’t want to keep everyone in suspense about my trip to D.C. And I feel like you all know me just a bit better now.
** I snuck the photo of this famous White House walkway on my way out.
