It\u2019s 3 a.m., and I can\u2019t sleep. Not because of a \u201cnighttime worry\u201d session, but because my heart is bursting with something difficult to describe. You see, 21 years ago today, at exactly 7:52am, my life was completely changed forever. After three grueling hours of pushing \u2014 and a vacuum assist — Taylor Christine came into the world. Our firstborn.<\/i> I had no idea the impact becoming a mom would have on me. I had assisted thousands of women as a labor and delivery nurse into the role of a lifetime. Still, I had no idea how I was about to be changed.<\/p>\n
The first few weeks of being a mom involved packing boxes, quitting my job and moving to a fast-paced, crazily-crowded place. However, the thing I could never fathom was just how much we loved<\/i> this little girl. And furthermore, 21 years later, as her mom, I had no idea how much that love would change me.<\/p>\n
No one ever told me how when you become a mom, how much your children would impact and change your life. Now, I\u2019d like to paint a picture of the perfect parenting experience from birth to 21 years of age \u2014 but I cannot. I will tell you that through the adventure and journey of loving Taylor, and my other three kiddos, I can now<\/i> see they each have impacted me as much as I\u2019d like to hope I\u2019ve impacted them.<\/p>\n
They have expanded my heart and in the same breath the challenges have made me dig deeper to understand myself, my relationship with my husband, and them as well. Over the years you could have found me bursting with joy and crying with concern and frustration all in the same hour \u2014 in the same minute! The days of rushing to the grocery store in-between naps; temper tantrums I swore my<\/i> children would never throw, both as toddlers and teenagers; and the snuggles on the couch in the middle of the day or the middle of the night \u2014 impacted me.<\/p>\n
I have watched my daughters and son grow and mature through each season. Looking back, I\u2019m in awe of how much they have grown and matured me.<\/i> I\u2019d like to think I\u2019ve become more patient, more loving, more compassionate, and even more aware of how much I don\u2019t know about motherhood\u2014all as a result of giving birth four times\u2014three biologically and one through the gift of adoption.<\/p>\n
Love drives you to places you never know you would go (and I can promise you \u2014 I\u2019m in a season that I drive kids around for hours a day), but I\u2019m not talking just about driving in a car. I\u2019m talking about being driven to places of joy I never knew possible; places of heartbreak I didn\u2019t know could exist; and destinations of reflection at a level I didn\u2019t know I could experience \u2014 even at 3am.<\/p>\n
I had no idea the impact four little people could have on me personally, and I know the journey is still in process. But looking back to 21 years ago today \u2014 love changed everything. Love changed me.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 3 a.m., and I can\u2019t sleep. Not because of a \u201cnighttime worry\u201d session, but because my heart is bursting with something difficult to describe. You see, 21 years ago today, at exactly 7:52am, my life was completely changed forever. After three grueling hours of pushing \u2014 and a vacuum assist — Taylor Christine came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":12048,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,42,102],"tags":[166,26,33,114],"class_list":["post-1108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-lifestyle","category-relationships","tag-erin","tag-family","tag-identity","tag-wisdom"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}