welcome

I want to finish this project by acknowledging women who may not be mothers at this point in their lives. There are women who desire motherhood more than anything and just haven’t been able to have children. There are some women who have made a choice to not become a mother. And there are many women who mother other people every single day but may not have any children of their own.

Society places an extremely high value on being a mother. There are so many things I could write about expectations, worth, purpose, calling, feminism … the list goes on. I don’t want a single woman who read along this month to feel that she hasn’t achieved the highest honor in life if she can’t be a mother or has made the decision not to be. 

Becca is my (only) little sister. And she is about to have a baby! Yes, she is younger than me and yes, she has been married for less time, and yes, she is way more prepared for motherhood than most people I know, including myself.

When Becca got pregnant, no less than 30 people asked me if it made me want to have children. The shortest and most honest answer I can give is, “Absolutely not.” Hold your judgement: I have a really good reason. 

A little more than two years ago, Kelli heard from a little birdie that I didn’t have many friends at church. And she called me. I don’t remember what she said or what we did or how our friendship developed, but I distinctly remember her effort. It meant the world to me. And with Kelli came more friends (See here and here.)

Just like I can’t remember the details of the beginning of our friendship, Kelli can’t really remember the details of when she decided to become a mother. It was the most gradual yet fastest thing I’ve ever seen.

Kendyl is another person I’ve written about before. 

To paint you a picture of who Kendyl is if you don’t feel like reading the post I just linked:

– She completed her PhD in Epidemiology last fall.
– She runs her own nonprofit, NomoGaia, where she publishes human rights assessments of projects and/or companies operating in developing countries around the world.
time to read that.)

I’ve written about Alexxa before, so if you want to know what tipster means (and it actually has nothing to do with alcohol), go read that post. She was actually one of the original gals to sit in the green chair! In that first post, I compared her to my sister Katie. She is about to remind me more of her because she is having a baby in August!!

In the same way that motherhood glows on Katie, I know it will on Alexxa. She prayed for this baby for a long time (a girl by the way!) and when she called to tell me she was pregnant, I just burst into tears. It was the perfect timing for Alexxa.

My Grandma Horning (my dad’s mother) is easily the most affectionate relative I have. Now, Mennonites aren’t necessarily known for their hugs and kisses, so I’m not sure where it came from, but you could always, 100% of the time count on Grandma to demand a kiss. I didn’t mind it—I actually thought it was very sweet. But ask all of my boy cousins … they might have some different opinions.