The Springs in the Desert Podcast: Catholic Accompaniment Through Infertility
Sep 9, 2026 · 31 min · 9 segments
On Instagram back in February, Steffani Aquila of His Girl Sunday proposed a question to her followers: "What if difficulty helps me to blossom?" A season of infertility doesn't always *feel* like a…
Steffani AquilaGuest[upbeat music] Welcome to the Springs in the Desert podcast.
We are the friends you can take with you wherever you are on the path of infertility.
If this podcast has been a blessing to you, would you consider giving a gift today to ensure that those on the path of infertility always have a friend in their back pocket? Thanks for your support, and let's dive in.
[upbeat music] Hey, listeners.
Welcome back to the Springs in the Desert podcast.
I am Jillian, your host, and I am back with Stephanie Akella.
We just have the best conversations with Stephanie on the podcast, and we'll make sure to link those, um, in the show notes.
We are so glad that you are here.
And listeners, before we dive in, I really just have to tell you the background to this particular conversation.
So Stephanie, I follow her on Instagram, and also so does the rest of the team.
She's got some amazing, amazing content on there that is really, really helps bring the faith alive in, in your home.
And so I will, again, it's in the show notes.
Please check her out.
Um, but she had a post in February that essentially, and, and I...
We'll have Stephanie talk about this in, in her own words, but essentially says, like, what if a difficulty that I'm experiencing or a cross that I am carrying can help you blossom, can actually be, become the f- some fruit in your life? And we have, you know, our, our, uh, social media manager, content manager, Cassandra, she saw this, and she's always, like, scouring social media f- with all of our friends because they have so many amazing things, and we love to talk to them on the podcast or ask them to write blogs.
But this particular post, everyone else on our team saw this and brought, like, to the same meeting, we're like, we all said like, "We have this thing we want to talk about." Everyone had something, and it all ended up being the same exact thing.
Stephanie posted this, [laughs] and we must talk about it.
And so we do what the Holy Spirit tells [laughs] us to do, and we brought Stephanie on the podcast to, to talk about this.
So Stephanie, welcome back.
It is so good to have you here.
Yeah.
Yes, yes.
You know, 'cause I, I think sometimes, right, at Springs, we try to be really intentional with the vocabulary that we are using about the path of infertility and a season of infertility, and it really, um, a lot of them are, are actually scriptural references, liturgical references, things that we hear in other places that help bring a richness to whatever it is that we're carrying in, in this season.
And, um, sometimes it can be difficult to grasp or to put words to what is God doing [laughs] in our life right now.
You know, and, and going to prayer i- is, is beautiful, but sometimes that's hard.
It's hard to go to prayer in this season when it feels like God's not answering your prayers.
And he, is He even listening? Does He even care? There's just so many questions and facets on the path of infertility or loss that can really make it tricky to hear His voice or to believe that He's speaking to you.
And so this particular post, we, like this, I, I think this really describes a lot of what we hope can be an encouragement and a comfort to those in our community.
And so I, I would love for you to talk about...
I mean, and maybe you don't even, like, remember where this [laughs] came from, but even just the thought in general if you don't remember, like, exactly what prompted the post, where did maybe this come from? Like this, that some- maybe a difficulty is actually, can actually be a good thing for me.
Like, where, where did that arise for you?
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[upbeat music] Welcome to the Springs in the Desert podcast.
We are the friends you can take with you wherever you are on the path of infertility.
If this podcast has been a blessing to you, would you consider giving a gift today to ensure that those on the path of infertility always have a friend in their back pocket? Thanks for your support, and let's dive in.
[upbeat music] Hey, listeners.
Welcome back to the Springs in the Desert podcast.
I am Jillian, your host, and I am back with Stephanie Akella.
We just have the best conversations with Stephanie on the podcast, and we'll make sure to link those, um, in the show notes.
We are so glad that you are here.
And listeners, before we dive in, I really just have to tell you the background to this particular conversation.
So Stephanie, I follow her on Instagram, and also so does the rest of the team.
She's got some amazing, amazing content on there that is really, really helps bring the faith alive in, in your home.
And so I will, again, it's in the show notes.
Please check her out.
Um, but she had a post in February that essentially, and, and I...
We'll have Stephanie talk about this in, in her own words, but essentially says, like, what if a difficulty that I'm experiencing or a cross that I am carrying can help you blossom, can actually be, become the f- some fruit in your life? And we have, you know, our, our, uh, social media manager, content manager, Cassandra, she saw this, and she's always, like, scouring social media f- with all of our friends because they have so many amazing things, and we love to talk to them on the podcast or ask them to write blogs.
But this particular post, everyone else on our team saw this and brought, like, to the same meeting, we're like, we all said like, "We have this thing we want to talk about." Everyone had something, and it all ended up being the same exact thing.
Stephanie posted this, [laughs] and we must talk about it.
And so we do what the Holy Spirit tells [laughs] us to do, and we brought Stephanie on the podcast to, to talk about this.
So Stephanie, welcome back.
It is so good to have you here.
Yeah.
Yes, yes.
You know, 'cause I, I think sometimes, right, at Springs, we try to be really intentional with the vocabulary that we are using about the path of infertility and a season of infertility, and it really, um, a lot of them are, are actually scriptural references, liturgical references, things that we hear in other places that help bring a richness to whatever it is that we're carrying in, in this season.
And, um, sometimes it can be difficult to grasp or to put words to what is God doing [laughs] in our life right now.
You know, and, and going to prayer i- is, is beautiful, but sometimes that's hard.
It's hard to go to prayer in this season when it feels like God's not answering your prayers.
And he, is He even listening? Does He even care? There's just so many questions and facets on the path of infertility or loss that can really make it tricky to hear His voice or to believe that He's speaking to you.
And so this particular post, we, like this, I, I think this really describes a lot of what we hope can be an encouragement and a comfort to those in our community.
And so I, I would love for you to talk about...
I mean, and maybe you don't even, like, remember where this [laughs] came from, but even just the thought in general if you don't remember, like, exactly what prompted the post, where did maybe this come from? Like this, that some- maybe a difficulty is actually, can actually be a good thing for me.
Like, where, where did that arise for you?
