About This Book

Crawling into my parent’s lap to read a book are some of my fondest childhood memories. Since getting married in 2022, my husband and I have collected children’s books at each new place we visit. We filled our future children’s library with books from national parks, islands, and new countries. We hope to give our children the same gift of reading my parents gave to me. We started trying for a family soon after we were married and were ecstatic when we became pregnant right away. Unfortunately, that pregnancy ended in a miscarriage followed by over two years of unexplained infertility. Each new place we visited was marked with an air of sadness that it was yet another trip without a baby to bring along.

Mama and Papa Bear’s journeys are reflective of our trips while experiencing infertility. I hope this books serves as a lullaby for infants and toddlers, a healing poem for aching parents, and a reassurance to myself and others that we are not alone in infertility.

While this road has been difficult, it has introduced us to a community of people who are experiencing a road to parenthood similar to ours. Something that we thought would be as easy as “trying” has turned into a journey that has bonded us and taught us the importance of leaning on each other. This book has served as my reframing of our “adventure”, an outlet for healing, and a way of honoring the baby we lost. I hope this book brings solace to parenst who are navigating this often windy path. Whether it is in sitting on a shelf while still waiting for their baby or a reflection of their own journeys as they read it with their child in their lap.