Finding your community

When I got pregnant with my first I was super excited about play dates, bonding with my girlfriends that already had kids and everyone coming over to visit the new baby. I assumed a meal train would be set up, I read so much about saying no to visitors, I was ready to turn down guests, ask them to come to our home later instead of the hospital etc.

However that wasn’t quite the case though. By the time I had kids, most of my friends were done having kids or had their hands full with toddlers and were too busy to drop off a home made meal on a Wednesday. My husband is a little bit older than me and most of his friends had teenage kids. Needless to say, my postpartum expectations fell short in what I received from my community.

I was disappointed, but not upset with my friends, I just knew that many of them were in different seasons and going through stuff that I would down the road. Truthfully, my friend pool had shrunk and I didn’t even know how to make new friends. I mean where do you find them? I frequent Trader Joe’s a lot, or maybe Target, that’s also my jam. I did meet one new friend at the dog park while on maternity leave with my first and have been super grateful for our friendship as both our girls are the same age!

Then I started this blog and Instagram page. I had a vision and thought I knew what it was going to look like. It does have the look I was going for and I have gotten the followers and growth I have worked on. However, what I have gotten back on these platforms is more than I could have hoped for. I found a community of women that needed me as much as I needed them. Motherhood is such a tough journey, so personal and unique, yet similar emotions and experiences. You can feel lonely, but you are never alone and somehow you can relate to a total stranger better than people you may have known your whole life.

When I started this blog, I felt as if I had something I wanted to share and others could relate to. Of course, there was a lot of self doubt that stopped me for years. Finally, I just took the plunge because nothing else in my life felt right. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to each and everyone of you that has taken the time to read what I have wrote, respond genuinely and contacted me with your own stories. I hope that I have been able to offer as much comfort and community that you have provided me with.