The Christian based memoir dives into the difficult subjects of infertility, adoption, infidelity and finding God through some of life's hardest losses.

 

5 Months Apart; a Memoir by Kerstin Lindquist

Published by Elk Lake

Available Now on Amazon.com

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         My girls aren’t twins, though they look remarkably alike. They were conceived in the same month but born five months apart. No, this isn’t the start of a sci-fi novel or the result of some top-secret fertility experiment. My journey to becoming a mother wasn’t an easy one, and certainly wasn’t glamorous. Even as a local television news anchor, our family wasn’t featured in the national news as a result of our miraculous birth story.

 

 In 2005 we were the perfect southern Californian couple: a pretty, blond news anchor and her Hugh Grant-esque husband. We were involved in our church, gave to charity, and had a five-year plan. But everything started to fall apart when we had our first miscarriage. Our path to becoming the unconventional family we are now started on the set of the morning news of San Diego’s local ABC affiliate, where I bled my way through a twenty-three minute news block. For the next three years, we struggled to keep it together, trusting in the Lord and relying on each other as best we could, but the shame and pain that comes with infertility can crumble even the strongest of foundations.

 

While I struggled with depression on live television for three years, I found that most women were not talking about their losses or own experiences with infertility. Over the course of nearly four years, my husband and I had to face the difficult issues of sex, marriage, infidelity, adoption, divorce, and infertility—issues the church is still wary to take on even today. Even in the Christian community, taboo words like “miscarriage,” “abortion,” and “adoption” are all too often swept under the rug. Yet pretending these struggles don’t exist don’t make them disappear.

 

5 Months Apart will help women come out of this society-imposed seclusion, to cry and scream and stomp their feet, to engage in productive and progressive discussion, and, through it all, believe in the ultimate happy ending: a successful pregnancy and adoption. Throughout, the underlying message is faith, honesty, and enduring grace. Although this is a very personal story, my wish is that sharing our experiences gives hope to the 1 in 4 couples that will suffer a miscarriage and the 6 out of 10 people who will have an experience with adoption.