Welcome to Season 4 of Stork’d! This introduction episode kicks off with the concept of “Choose Your Hard”,  assuming that you have access to those choices. Throughout this episode, you will hear snippets of Julia and several of her guests from this upcoming season discussing their family building stories. This episode focuses on a compilation of choices, tradeoffs and experiences guests encounter in building their families including: choosing divorce, to freeze eggs, to do one more round of IVF after many miscarriages, or to not have kids. The episode also features stories from families facing circumstances outside of their control such as illness, discovering you are donor conceived and loss.  In this episode, Julia touches on her feelings about Roe v. Wade and the impacts on future families with the choices they may no longer have.  Finally, we are excited for our first sponsor, California Cryobank. Tune in this season to weekly episodes celebrating all families and we hope you enjoy season 4!    IN THIS EPISODE:    [1:36] How do you choose your tradeoffs? [2:25] “Choose Your Hard” poem. How Julia interprets this poem from the perspective of our family lives. [4:38] What is Julia’s “hard?” The difficulties she has faced when she chose to be a single parent. [6:36] How “Choosing Hard” applies to guests you will hear on future season 4 episodes. [7:00] A clip of future season 4 guest, Jen, expressing her emotions around choosing divorce. [8:10] Future season 4 guest, Cam, and her choice to freeze her eggs. [9:36] Meg’s choice to build a family solely through adoption. [11:45] Chelsea watched as her parent deteriorated due to a terminal illness. How was she able to cope with those things that were thrust upon her and out of her control?  [12:45] Discovering your father was a sperm donor and you have donor conceived siblings. How Sydney connected with her BioSibs [13:50] Discovering you are donor conceived at age 13. How Louise experienced this stunning revelation. [15:30] Faced with the unthinkable: Yvette’s heartbreaking story of her son's death days after he was born. [17:30] Dealing with 8 miscarriages: Lauren’s choice to find another doctor who ulitmalely saved her life. [19:14] Overturn of Roe v. Wade - the potential implications for women to access life saving medical treatments. [22:38] What to expect for Season 4!   KEY TAKEAWAYS:    No matter what decision you make, it is going to be hard. There will be things that come up that create complications, but regardless of the decision, there will be challenges that arise.  Sometimes we don’t get to choose our circumstances. Instead, choosing your hard can be navigating things that happen TO us.  In every episode, we end up hearing a pivot point, where someone’s life goes through a change in which they had to make a decision; they had to choose which direction their life was going to go. Season 4’s new sponsor, California Cryobank, holds a special place in Julia’s family. She chose her sperm donor from California Cryobank.    RESOURCE LINKS   Stork'd Facebook Page   Stork'd on Instagram   Stork'd YouTube Channel   Stork’d Website   California Cryobank