I always knew I wanted to be a mother. There wasn’t a time limit on it, I didn’t think by this age I will be a mum. I just knew I wanted to get married and have a child. Old fashioned? Maybe. I wanted a career and to travel etc of cause, but it was like motherhood was written through me like a stick of rock. A background noise to future decisions.

I could imagine my life with my husband and children. A happy one. I visualised it so often that I convinced myself that it would happen. It was going to be tough, I didn’t understand why I was being tested like this, but it would happen. One day I would be sat holding my child grateful and all the pain and struggle would be worth it as I gaze down at my beautiful baby.

Sometimes these things do not go to plan. Now in my mid thirties I am left wondering when do I let go of the life I imagined and start to embrace a different one? As time passes the ache grows, but also it’s changing.

I have tried over the years to move on, I have done many wonderful things that we wouldn’t perhaps have been able to do if we had children, but every long term plan was hindered slightly by the hope….. if I am pregnant by that time what will we do.

In a way I feel like certainly the last 10 years have been lived around this “what if” some decisions perhaps put off, plans rearranged. I wonder how long I will continue to do this before I accept it isn’t happening and make a new plan.

The truth is that I just can not imagine a future without children, the more it becomes a reality it’s hard to let go of the life I have imagined since I was a little girl. It’s like letting that part of me die. I’m grieving.

Until recently I have plodded along almost zombie like. You work pay bills and do a few holidays and all the while hoping that this time next year I would have our child. I would finally feel complete and not like a puzzle with a missing piece.

I don’t believe a woman’s worth is just in having children of cause, I see lots of wonderful, beautiful strong women in this world getting along fantastically and childfree by choice. Happy. I want to be one of them but something in me just can not let go.

I used to wonder was it just that growing up the world around me told me thats what I should be doing. Was that the reason I even wanted to have children? The older I am the more I know this isn’t true. Somewhere deep inside me there is just an ache, a desperate need to nurture and raise a child.

The independent woman in me gets angry that I feel so directionless now that I haven’t fulfilled that dream. I want to scream and slap myself. I have so much to be grateful for why can’t I just let this one thing go and move on??

How do I even do that. MOVE ON.

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