Family Building Stories
Get real-life perspectives from our community, highlighting the many different paths a fertility and family building journey can take.
Julie’s Journey: It began several states ago…
Founder of Building Military Families Network, Julie Eshelman shares about her ongoing family building journey, one that spans many years and states, highlighting the unique challenges that military families often face. We also hear about Julie’s rise as a...
Kelly’s Journey: Hurry up and wait
Kelly Soule shares about her ongoing journey and the difficulty of not knowing what’s next for her family. From processing IVF not working and a changing relationship with her own body, to attempting to adjust to having no sense of control and situations...
Staci’s Journey: Zigzag to the finish line
CEO and Founder of Family Source Consultants (FSC), Staci Swiderski shares her personal journey as an intended parent, welcoming a son via gestational surrogacy in 2005 and her experience as a known egg donor. Her own fertility challenges led her to found...
Andy’s Journey: Mourning the loss of what you thought your family was going to be.
Andy Lamb shares his story of male infertility, mental health struggles, and the reinvention of who he was and what really mattered in life and family on his journey to become a father. Now a parent to three girls adopted through foster care, Andy supports...
Jennifer’s Journey: “Still a Family, Just a Family of Two.”
Jennifer Redmond shares her story of infertility, loss, and embracing life as a family of two, how her own fertility journey has influenced her personal and professional life, and reflects on the evolution she’s seen in the fertility and family building...
Polly’s Journey: Someone shouldn’t have to experience tragedy for things to be equal.
Director of Family Advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) and recipient of the 2024 AllPaths Advocacy Award, Polly Crozier shares her own challenging family building story, as well as her advocacy for parentage equality inclusive...
Haya’s Journey: Unexplained Infertility – So Many Variables and Unknowns
A Boston-based healthcare product strategist with a passion for social impact and community building, Haya shares her story, from unexplained infertility and loss, to pursuing fertility treatment (IUI & IVF) as a path to parenthood, culminating in a...
Walking Paths We Hadn’t Imagined
Guest Post by Molly D, Footsteps for Family Building Committee Member Last year, on the day before my first Footsteps for Family Building Walk, I drove to Boston at 6:30 on a Saturday morning for a pregnancy test. It was my fifth such test in a week. I’d...
Don’t Forget to Look Up
Guest post by Danielle Day, originally published on her blog Warrior by Day Therapists need a therapist. Personal trainers need a personal trainer. Coaches need a coach. Teachers need a teacher. If you ever get to a point in your life or career where you...
The Power of Narrative: Family Storytelling, Diverse Families, and Donor Conception
Featured in the AllPaths Magazine, 2024 Volume 2 By Sonja Klug In mainstream books, films, and ads there is a very dominant narrative of how families happen: Usually, a man and a woman fall in love, have children and live happily after. From a young age,...
From Patient to Patient Advocate
Featured in the AllPaths Magazine, 2024 Volume 2 By Lisa Rosenthal I feel distinctly honored and humbled at having been trusted with the serious effort of taking on the President of the Board of Directors for AllPaths Family Building. Working with Kate...
“There is no shame in walking along this path.”
Guest Post by Dana Solomon, AllPaths Board Member In the summer of 2019, at age 30, I was shocked to sit in the office of a Reproductive Endocrinologist and be told I should pursue IVF to start our family. I couldn’t believe this was “happening to me.” I...