One of the aspects of pregnancy that lots of people talk about is creating a birth plan, but it gets put off until the very end for so many women. I was only able to find one sample birth plan that I liked. I wished my OB had provided some samples for me to work off of, but they didn’t talk about it with me at all. The one I based mine off of I ended up finding in the back of a book at one of the hospital classes we attended toward the end of our pregnancy with Claire.

When I made mine and showed it to my doctor, she said “Sure we can add that to your chart,” which I took to mean no one was going to read it and look it over to see what I might’ve missed, let alone help me stick to it. I took that opportunity to do tons more research, memorize my plan, talk it over with and share it with my husband, so that we could let nurses know what we wanted.

Time flies when you’re having fun. Nine years ago I married my PA high school sweetheart in the middle of a beautiful upstate NY snowstorm. A day later we flew to our honeymoon and a week later we moved to NC. It was a whirlwind then, but I wouldn’t change any of it.

Nine years, and we’ve never looked back. Many trials and two kids later, I’m happy and blessed and more in love than the day we met (in the back row of Mrs. Miller’s 11th grade health class).

On our wedding we got many wonderful gifts, cards, and well-wishes. However, the one that has stuck with me the most is a card with an essay from Barbara Cage. Each year I read back over this card and realize how much more true it all is with each and every passing day.

I hope this will bring you the same joyful encouragement it does to me all these years later.

In September 2015 I began attending a MOPS (Mothers of Pre Schoolers) group near my house. It was hosted by a local church, but not the church we called home. I attended for about a year (well, 2 semesters), but in May 2016 when the year ended, the leader stepped down and a new leader could not be found (and MOPS took several steps away from their roots as a gospel-centered ministry), so the mothers ministry at that church disbanded. It was then that I began to realize I couldn’t possibly be the only mom at my church who felt the need for this vital ministry and fellowship.

November was a busy month of travel for us. My husband was out of town for work for almost a week, and then immediately after he returned, I traveled by plane across the country to visit my sister who I hadn’t seen in almost 2 years. After we returned from that flight, we all packed in the car and traveled by car 9 hours to PA for Thanksgiving. In hindsight, busy doesn’t even seem to be the right word for all that traveling madness… I’m glad I didn’t have to do all that traveling alone with two kids!

Before I had Nora, I traveled alone with Claire quite a bit. I mostly flew, and each time I got better at it. I used what I learned from traveling alone with 1 to hone in on what I would need traveling with two kids, and that became my starting point.