Profile elaborated
To further expand on my profile: As I noted, I am fascinated by the mikvah: stories, films, other women's experiences, mikvah attendants, all the different types of mikva'ot. I've been amazed to discover that it's not just orthodox women who observe t"h. I never knew about it growing up; never heard anything about special laws for Jewish couples. Well, except the ol' hole-in-the-sheet rule, of course, but then hasn't everyone heard that one?
Despite my afore-mentioned amazement, I am orthodox. I have issues with denominational categories, however, because if I identify myself as something, then some people expect a certain type of behaviour from me. I'm ba'al teshuva, a returnee to religious Judaism. My husband and I belong to an orthodox shul, we try to be shomer Shabbat (observant of the laws of Shabbat), I am mostly shomer mitzvot (observant of the laws of how to live Jewishly - for example, keeping kosher or hey! observing taharat hamishpacha). I'm still learning, so what I know, I observe. We started practicing t"h - also known as the family "purity" laws (I saw them referred to as "family sanctity laws," which I like better as a translation) - a few years after we were married. We met and married in our thirties, and are currently trying to have children. Which actually was our impetus for starting to observe t"h. We decided if we were going to have children, we wanted them conceived in a kosher, holy manner, according to halacha.
And that's my story from Beneath the Surface