Taking a Risk

Yesterday while reading, Real Simple May issue, I was reading the section called Your Words. Here the magazine poses a question and readers email their responses. The question for a future month was to describe a risk you are glad you took. This question resonated with me and I had to answer it ( I had never responded to these questions before but always loved this section!)

I paused. And for a moment thought about the risk of trying to conceive and become a single mom. I paused. I just wasn't ready to go there and tell the whole world my struggles to have a baby.

But, my greatest risk was when in 1994, I took a leap of faith and joined the United States Peace Corps. I graduated from college and less than 3 weeks later, I was flying to a small island in the Eastern Caribbean to spend the next 2 years of my life. This experience really was the foundation of who I would become professionally years later. I learned to wash my cloths by hand, survive with only a bucket bath with rain water and speak creole, a language not well known outside of this region. The independence prepared me for the path of single motherhood. I realize now all that time spent living in a small concrete house in a small village was pushing me to take risks in life. Preparing for future challenges. Being independent. Doing things alone surrounded by my village.

Well, 18 years later, here I am preparing to enter the world of IVF, alone but with my village of family and friends around me. One of those friends, is my Known Donor (KD) who I met 18 years ago this July, day 1 of my pre-service training in Miami. If all goes well, I could be doing retrieval in June/July ....around the same time I landed on that tiny island 18 years ago.

So, I shared my story of joining the Peace Corps with the editors of Real Simple. They loved it and want to add it to the August issue.

Maybe one day I will be able to write to them about the risk of single motherhood and the journey to get here.

Either way, my strength, determination and heart will always be deeply rooted in my peace corps work. Maybe one day, I will be able to take my child to that small village that taught me that life is about taking risks.

I am sure glad I did.