Had things gone according to my plan, I would have been holding my baby on Mother’s Day in 2011. Instead, four years later I’m still trying to conceive. This long, slow, emotionally painful plan was certainly not my plan.

In the early years of this journey of trying to start our family, I felt very much alone. As time passed I connected with more and more people who are asking God for a baby. I sit here this Mother’s Day weekend reading the many excellent blog posts that are circulating the internet in honor of those who hurt because of infertility, and I thought I’d share some with you.

If your heart is hurting today, may these stories help to ease your pain.

Lysa Terkeurst invited fellow author Holley Gerth to share her story here: lysaterkeurst.com/2015/04/hope-when-mothers-day-is-hard-2/.

One year ago, a friend emailed me this blog post by Sara Hagerty, encouraging me to come before God with my pain: everybitterthingissweet.com/2014/05/mothers-day-a-day-to-shed-that-thick-skin-a-note-for-the-not-yet-mamas-and-others-in-waiting/.

Elisha at Waiting for Baby Bird writes beautifully from that place of trusting God for a baby. She wrote this to encourage the friends of those longing for a baby: waitingforbabybird.com/2015/05/08/sheltering-her-from-the-storm-this-mothers-day-2/.

Caroline of In Due Time, who is also asking God for a baby, encourages those of us in the waiting to focus on what we do have this Mother’s Day: in-due-time.com/life/a-victorious-mothers-day/.

This post on Blogos offers practical wisdom from someone who has walked this path before us: www.blogos.org/churchandministry/infertility-mothers-day.html.

Then there was this post I wrote about a strange event that happened to me on Mother’s Day several years ago: chixpartyoffive.com/2012/05/a-not-so-sluggish-mothers-day-or-maybe-it-was-sluggish-betsy/.

I also want to share this post – a thoughtful one from a man sensitively sharing about the pain of miscarriage: joshuarogers.com/2013/02/12/your-miscarriage-remembered/.

Mother’s Day isn’t just hard for those of us with empty arms; it’s difficult for those whose mothers have passed away. Observing my mom friends firsthand, Mother’s Day is even hard for moms of little children! This post speaks to both of those: fearlessdaughters.blogspot.com/2014/09/motherhood.html.

If you’ve gotten this far into the post and you’re saying, “Well, at least you have a husband,” I encourage you to take a moment to read the following post. I thought it was a sweet story of hope for those desiring marriage: www.boundless.org/blog/engagement-stories-crystal-dale/. Regardless of where we are in life, we can have hope for the future!

Please leave a comment with the most encouraging Mother’s Day post you’ve read!

If you haven’t read my book Embracing Hope During Infertility, I invite you to check it out here! You can read the first couple of chapters on Amazon by using the “look inside” feature.