On the Lighter Side

About three years ago, I had taken a break from teaching and started my home based tutoring business. We felt it was best that I was not teaching full time at that point of our journey. It was a particularly difficult time emotionally and physically, and I began journaling. However, I did not stop with writing down my thoughts privately. I actually wrote the Dr. Phil show about our struggle to have a child. (I have always felt that Infertility is not given the air time that it deserves. In fact, it seems like a taboo subject!). When we went through another speed bump in our journey, I shot off a second letter. I NEVER expected to hear anything. Surprisingly, weeks later, we received a call from one of the show's producers!

I cannot even tell you how surprised I was about that! My letter had explained the emotional, physical, and financial struggle (partly because I was not teaching fulltime) we were experiencing, and apparantly sparked an interest in Dr. Phil's staff. The producer interviewed both of us, and then asked for us to email a picture to her. At this point, we were preparing to go on national television to have our private pain become very public. We were willing to make that sacrifice if Dr. Phil would actually provide us with some words of wisdom/counsel. We also thought that our story and Dr. Phil's advice may help other couples struggling with infertility.

Then the producer called a second time, and she explained that she wanted to ask us more in depth questions. I interviewed first, and then Billy. She had even asked us if we could recruit family members to go on the show! She told us that we would get an email whether the production crew felt we were a good match for the show's topic. A few days later, we received our answer: we would not be asked to appear on the show because there was not enough conflict in our marriage. One of the questions the producer had asked Billy was, "Do you resent Heather because of the infertility?" Billy had answered "no." Though we were slightly disappointed about being rejected by the Dr. Phil show, we were pretty happy to hear that our life was pretty conflict and drama free. Especially since this was about the time that Dr. Phil's show started to become more Jerry Springer-ish. This struggle has united us more than it has divided us! I thank God for that!