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by Sandra
Bell-LundyThe Fertility & Adoption Storyline Archive
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copyright 2007 by King Features Syndicate, Inc. World Rights Reserved
The Fertility & Adoption Storyline Archive
When my cartoon strip, "Between Friends" debuted in 1994, it featured the glorious angst and camaraderie of three contemporary women. They deliberated about office politics, commiserated over body image and snickered at ex-husbands' girlfriends. Eventually, after a few years had passed, I began to feel the time had come to introduce children. "Between Friends" is a reality-based strip so it seemed like a natural progression. Also, I now had two children of my own and their influence was becoming difficult to ignore.
Having struggled with infertility myself, I was opposed to the idea of Susan (the only married character at the time) just waking up one morning and happily discovering that she was pregnant. After my experience, it just seemed like too much of a fairy tale. Thus, Susan gradually began to realize that she was having trouble conceiving.
The fertility series doesn't mirror my own personal story but it is influenced by it. Initially, I had intended to have Susan resolve her infertility through pregnancy as I did, but for a variety of reasons (including reader response) I decided to have adopt.
The adoption series was written after researching adoption newsletters, government literature and interviewing a number of adoptive couples.
The series appeared intermittently in my strip over a period of about two years but is archived here in succession.
This storyline is particularly sentimental to me. I hope you enjoy it.
-Sandra
