welcome

To introduce this series, I thought I would start with my favorite thing that exists on planet earth: cookies. I would love to say there isn’t a cookie I’ve met that I didn’t like. But it’s just not true. I’m very particular about my cookies and you should be too. You owe it to yourself. There are a couple things I’ve learned that might be helpful for you on your own cookie journey:

The first step is admitting you have a problem, right? Well I do, and it happens to be an addiction to the thing that comes with me everywhere. 

The thing that is hard about this addiction is that it’s very socially acceptable. It’s actually socially UNacceptable to not be attached to your phone. To take too long to text/email/call someone back. I‘m guilty of being annoyed with people for not answering me quickly. And I’m just perpetuating the problem.

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.)