Songs I Would Have Sung, Letters I Would Have Written, Dreams I Now Have Realized: A Memoir of Pregnancy Loss, Adoption, and Birth

Most of us assume that things will go according to our plans. If we put our minds to a purpose and carry out the necessary steps, we'll land that job or take that trip - or get pregnant pretty much on our pre-determined schedule.

It's a jolt to discover you're the exception to the rule; that the plans you'd made took a different course, not at all what you'd expected or wanted. Yet, as is so often the case in looking back from the distance of time, or place, or circumstance, something in that change brings a different insight and a new promise...perhaps completely unlike the original blueprint, but extraordinary in its own right.

This was our journey toward parenthood. However, lest you get the mistaken impression that the pitfalls were not devastating or the losses not profound, I ask you to walk the miles with us. From there, you can draw your own conclusions.

Jayne Easley
August 2009

Jayne H. Easley is a school psychologist and has dealt with a variety of grief issues in her profession. Her own journey to parenthood spanned a range of emotions from wrenching loss to immeasurable joy. Easley is the mother of two sons and lives in Virginia with her husband, Bruce.