You've Got Something To Say - Toastmasters Speech June 2009

I was looking back at my first 10 speeches for Toastmasters when I came across this one. Tomorrow I will add an update with the connection to Lost Stork Foundation.

I was listening to one of my CD’s by Matthew West and while I’ve heard this particular song many times, one day it took on a new meaning. The chorus says this:
You’ve got something to say
If you’re living, if you’re breathing
You’ve got something to say
You know if you’re heart is beating
You’ve got something to say
And no one can say it like you do
God is love and love speaks through
You got it, you got it
You’ve got something to say

Matthew West is right, each of us have experiences worth telling, a testimony. I love hearing testimonies; they are stories about endurance, strength, faith, miracles…. testimonies are stories of victory and they give us hope. Sometimes what you have endured will comfort someone, it may give strength, renew someone’s faith, sometimes, what you say can save a life.

I’ve always loved children and wanted several. Meghan is very much my daughter and also loves children. When she was 19 months old her first baby brother was born. Never did I have a problem with jealousy; Meghan thought Ryan was her own personal live doll! She would pitch a fit if I was sitting holding him and she wasn’t. She went around nursing her baby doll just like mommy did. When her second baby brother came along Meghan was 3 ½, she was excited to have another baby to play with. Meghan loved babies.

When Meghan was 9 years old she hired out as a mommy’s helper. She would play with the babies or toddlers while mommy worked around the house. By the time she was 13, Meghan was an in demand babysitter. Rarely did a weekend go by that she was not babysitting someone’s children. Our church even made an exception to their rule and at 13 let Meghan watch the baby nursery with me on Sunday mornings. She didn’t limit herself to the quiet babies, Meghan changed diapers, soothed fussy babies and fed them just like the adults. In High School, she was in the Teacher’s Cadet Program where she “had class” 5 days a week in a Kindergarten class as an assistant. The children fell in love with her immediately and she could reach the most difficult child. When her friends started having babies, Meghan is the one they would call for advice, anyone who knows Meghan knows she has a knack with children of all ages.

After graduating High School Meghan worked at a daycare center while going to college to get her Sociology degree with the goal of having her own adoption agency one day. Meghan became a nanny and is now caring for twin 6 month old boys. My daughter hasn’t had any luck in getting pregnant and is going to an infertility specialist. It just doesn't seem right that someone so in love with children would not be blessed with children of her own.

Meghan doesn’t like baby showers. It breaks her heart to buy someone else a gift for what she wants so desperately. When another of her friends excitedly calls with the wonderful news that they are pregnant, Meghan rejoices with them, then later, mourns for herself. Don’t dare tell her to relax!!! “How can I just relax”, she asks me, “when I walk by adorable baby clothes or other baby items but can’t buy any for myself?” “How am I supposed to relax when octo-mom has another 8 babies she can’t afford and I can’t even have one?”

Here’s where the testimony part comes into play. You see, while Meghan may not have a baby of her own right now what she does have is an incredible opportunity to minister to thousands and thousands of women! Meghan leads an infertility support group in St Louis, she’s writing a daily devotional book geared toward infertile women and Meghan blogs. Now I only learned what blogging was last year when she explained it to me. Just in case someone here doesn’t know; blogging is, well, a public diary, for the whole world to read!

And I do mean the whole world since Meghan not only has followers all over the United States, but in 41 additional countries including Australia and Iceland. Meghan blogs about what infertility means, how it affects her everyday life, the frustrations of hearing one more person tell her to just adopt or quit worrying about it. She shared what it was like to give herself shots in the stomach everyday for two weeks and about the raging hormones she endured from “booster shots” from the Doctor to help ovulation; then Meghan shares her heartbreak when yet, another attempt at getting pregnant is unsuccessful.

Meghan’s got something to say. Meghan’s Blog is a place where other infertile women network to find information about new advances, procedures, medications and options for infertility, including adoption. More importantly, Meghan’s Blog has become Meghan’s testimony. She offers her perspective and gives encouragement to other infertile women. By sharing her testimony, she is assuring these women that they are not alone in this journey. The testimony from her heart proves to these women that she fully understands the heartache they are suffering. What Meghan has endured has given her the strength to comfort others and then in turn gives others the strength to go one more round of procedures or tests. Meghan’s powerful faith can renew someone else’s faith.

God is love and love is speaking through Meghan.