Twelve Stripes Deep

"Faith is what gets you started. Hope is whatkeeps you going. Love is what brings you to the end.”  — Mother Angelica   "I was in an intimate prayer group with four other Catholic women a few years ago. In one of our book studies, my eyes were opened to a concept that was simple, but riveting, 'Consoling the Heart of Jesus.' In this book, Fr. Michael Gaitley describes a deep long...

Katie, who has gone through several rounds of IVF and now sees the process more clearly, is a founder of Shilofivf.com. This website and ministry serves women who are seeking healing from IVF, or are just curious about their experience of it and/or the Catholic Church's teaching, following their IVF procedure. They are also seek to help women who are considering IVF and children who have been conc...

Dr. Whittaker is a board certified OBGYN and a fellowship trained surgeon who specializes in the Creighton Model FertilityCare System and NaProTechnology, which works cooperatively with a woman's body to treat the underlying cause of gynecologic issues and infertility, such as endometriosis and PCOS.  She explained what the differences are between an OBGYN without fellowship training and a sur...

"Faith is one foot on the ground, one foot in the air, and a queasy feeling in the stomach.” —    Mother Angelica "I was eleven surgeries deep at this point, spanning over a period of eight years. I was having two to three operations every two years. The pain was obviously returning and it would not have been right to continue to put Bella and my family through this roller coaster ride o...

"If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark.” — Saint John of the Cross "Late last year, I was in the middle of presenting a CreightonModel Introductory Session in my home office to a newly engaged couple when I suddenly felt a steep rise in temperature. My skin was damp and clammy at first, then it began to release larger drops of mo...

I got to chat with Dr. Sarah Bartel, Catholic moral theologian and sex and marriage coach, all about intimacy, infertility, sex, when to say no, marriage, and IVF. One of the biggest struggles infertile couples experience but is not often talked about, is what it does to their sexual intimacy. Why does this happen? How can we identify it? How can we get through it? Sarah talks about how keeping th...

“Intense love does not measure, it just gives.”  — Saint Theresa of Calcutta "Chris and I promised forever to each other on another warm New Orleans day that should’ve been cold. Our wedding also took place on the only January day that it didn’t rain in our hometown in 2013, which I thought was pretty cool. I always feared that I’d be riddled with anxiety on that special day in anticipation o...

“Next to my vocation, the greatest gift I have is the pain I carry every day, because it forces me to cling to Jesus.”  — Mother Angelica   "Three trips to the emergency room for morphine, two to urgent care for Toradol injections, eleven surgeries, monthly narcotics, nausea, vomiting, countless hours writhing in bedsheets, the tub, and/or the bathroom floor, dramatic diet changes, planning l...

Fr. Paul West, spiritual father for Springs in the Desert, joined me to talk about infertility and how isolating it can feel in the Catholic Church. He has been married since 2009 and became a priest in 2020, and he and his wife have experienced both primary and secondary infertility, so he knows firsthand how difficult it can be. He took me through a fascinating journey through Genesis to explain...

“What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.”  ― Saint Augustine This is an episode about how difficult it is to be Catholic and struggle with infertility.

“You may not realize it when it happens, but akick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” — Walt Disney    The lights were dimmed low and the darkness was pierced only by flashing neon lights and cell phones ready to record the show. The atmosphere of a concert was set. The bass danced out of the speakers and vibrated onto my skin. Over one hundred teens approached the stage wit...

“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.” — Saint Augustine She is a little clumsy and prefers fruity desserts over chocolate ones, just like her daddy. She makes funny faces and loves to draw, like me. She is tiny and dark-skinned with jet black hair like her birth mother. She is nearly three and a half feet of sweet, smiling, princess-loving perfection a...

I am blown away by Kelle's story of motherhood in her childhood family, as a speech therapist, in the convent, and far beyond. Kelle Serio grew up as the oldest of four children and has a ton of cousins. She graduated from LSU with a Masters in Speech Therapy and worked for a total of nine years between DC and Louisiana. After that, she spent four years in the convent of the Nashville Dominicans b...

Listen to one of my favorite chapters - Spiritual. Freaking. Motherhood. where I hope to completely flip the way you think about this special quality that God gifts all women with. I intentionally titled it this way to get your attention because spiritual motherhood is often thought of as a consolation prize or something unimportant because it isn't as tangible as a child. Enough with that! The wo...

“Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self.”  — Saint Theresa of Calcutta In this episode, I share one of my favorite chapters, and what I believe to be one of the most important conversations that we need to be having right now in the Church and in our culture: Why Not IVF? IVF is often limited to an idea, or a promise made to infertile couples of achieving and maintaini...

Chapter 6: My New Best Friend “We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable.”  — Saint Bernard of Clairvaux   On top of the infertility I had been dealing with for years, God was still withholding consolation from me after that painful experience on my “worst day ever.” But on the following day as I sat on my living room sofa cont...

“Trust in God’s Providence, interfering – as it always does – for our own good.” ― Saint Mary Mackillop "I had certainly been rejected in the past, from the first volleyball team I tried out for, certain friendships, a boyfriend, the first Physical Therapist Assistant jobs I applied for, and now it seemed like my application for biological motherhood would be denied.  We experience rejection...

This is an interview with Christina Valenzuela, owner of Pearl & Thistle, a Certified Boston Crosscheck instructor, and author of the new book: "The Language of Your Body: Embracing God's Design for Your Cycle," published by Our Sunday Visitor. This is the first book of its kind and it is pretty spectacular. Purchase Christina's new book "The Language of Your Body: Embra...

God keeps the entire Universe in order, and still finds time to take a personal interest in you and me. — Mother Angelica "I never imagined the challenges I’d experience with my husband early in marriage. I didn’t just wake up randomly one morning with killer pains. I didn’t know it would become something I would have to plan my life around. I didn’t know there was so much I didn’t know about...

Let us love, since that is what our hearts were made for. — Saint Therese of Lisieux  "He has a little bit of a temper and I can hold a solid grudge. We are sometimes awful at communicating and about stealing bed sheets, drive each other crazy on occasion, and only one of us likes country music (it ain’t me), but there is no one in the world I would rather suffer and smile with. And boy, have...

Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind. —  Saint Catherine of Siena "My worst day ever didn’t bring me my only heartbreak–not even the only heartbreak that wiped the floor with me–just the only one that made me question the existence of God. Before every girl dreams of her bouncing baby girl or boy, she dreams of her kn...

In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel. — Saint Teresa of Avila "It was 2015 and hot outside when it should’ve been cool–– welcome to New Orleans. I was still infertile. I worked as a home health Physical Therapist Assistant at the time and stopped home for lunch when I got a phone call that set one of my wor...

"This is not your typical infertility journey. It is a love story painted by three dramatic characters - God, suffering, and the joy that is only produced by willingly accepting both of them. “Willingly accept suffering? Excuse me, what?” you might be wondering. This may initially sound like a tall task, and it is, but it is also a transformative one. And I’m not referring to the suffering yo...

**I am so sorry for the audio issues at the beginning of this episode. The issue is fixed with the reading of the Foreword. Hi! I’m Mary Bruno, your host, and author of Twelve Stripes Deep: How Infertility & Other Suffering Delivered My Greatest Joys, a story about infertility, endometriosis, pain, and loss - but also a story of acceptance, answers, joy, and hope. It’s one beautiful thing to g...