Introduction to Monday
To explain how I got to the point of deciding to start World Childless Week I need to explain a little about me and where my journey started. This will help you understand what inspired me to organise World Childless Week. So, without going into the nitty gritty details I found out at 39 and rapidly approaching 40 that my dream to be a mum was never going to happen. That instant of revelation sent a shard of ice through my heart that ripped all of my dreams apart. Everything that I thought I would be was shattered into a million pieces that scattered and blew away in every direction. I was broken and nothing could fill the void that had instantly appeared in my heart, the space that had been reserved for my children.
Read Steph's introduction to Monday and World Childless Week here
Childlessness in Indian Communities
Whether it is by choice or by circumstance being childless in an Indian community has some unique challenges. For many couples, childlessness is the result of failed natural conception and fertility treatments and for other couples, extending their family may simply not be a goal. Coming from an Indian background with a relatively large family, it has always been embedded into me that I will one day get married and start a family. This was certain. There seemed to be this unwritten rule that lingered which left the idea of childlessness as incomprehensible – especially if it was by choice.
Read the rest of this article by Shafali here
Childless in a Christian Church
I have asked others, and myself, how often are we angry at God, not for what HE has said, but for what others tell us He says. How often do we lay the blame at HIS feet for what imperfect people have done and claimed, the lies they filled our head with?
Childlessness in a City
You can read more about a sense of place with Berenice Smith, who talks about childlessness in the community on the Walk In Our Shoes blog here.