When I stopped trying to conceive, I will admit, I don't think I had ever before felt such a relief. No longer would I have to wake up at the crack of dawn in order to be the first person in line at the fertility clinic to have yet more blood drawn, or lay with my legs in stir-ups to see how my follicles were coming along; no longer would I have to inject myself with hormones that made me bloat and cry at the sight or thought of a baby. I can go on and on about what I wouldn't miss. The list was endless.

It was a little more than a year before I started to feel like my old self again. There were now things my husband and I had to look forward to. We love to travel! Whether it's flying out to Europe or renting a car and taking a day trip to Philadelphia, we love the freedom of getting up and going somewhere fun. Hard to do when you have children - not saying it's impossible - just hard to do. We also love going out to dinner or brunch or to the movies with friends; also something a lot easier to do without children. Choosing to make this decision even ended up being the catalyst to help me overcome the shyness I always had about sharing my writing with others. A lot of good has come out of our decision to live our lives without children. I figured all of these good things would help me get over it and move on with my life in no time! Sadly, I would find out it's not that easy.

Although our future began to look more positive everywhere I turned, literally, every single person I knew began getting pregnant. I had to stop scrolling through my Facebook feed as every other post was a sonogram picture, a "baby bump" picture, a newborn picture, or someone's first birthday. For some time I frequented a support site for infertile women and after a while every person I bonded with became pregnant. New members would show up, share their ordeal, and as soon as I commiserated with them, they became pregnant. I literally felt as if I were that last person on earth to not have a baby.

My husband and I do have friends that are childless by choice, but most infertile couples will agree that this is not the same. People who never wanted children don't understand the pain that comes with infertility. At the same time, couples who have been through infertility but were ultimately successful at conceiving may forget what it's like to feel like an outsider.