My Mommy Friends

A little over six years ago, I walked into the new parent group at the hospital where I delivered Hockey Boy, my first son. I was so unsure of myself and my parenting. I was totally overwhelmed by sleep deprivation and identity loss. And so was everyone else. Over the next few months, we shared our struggles with sleep issues, starting solid foods, being intimate again with our husbands. We laughed at our changed bodies and cried over the simplest things. 

Eventually a group of us aged out of the group. I am not sure who did what when, but I am so thankful that someone kept us going. Over time we found some new members and lost some to busy schedules and moves. We celebrated new babies and supported those who lost pregnancies. For the first years we met most Friday mornings in a large conference room at the local library. Then as our kids started preschools and morning play dates as a group stopped working, we started a monthly mom's night out. We took turns hosting and planning, each looking forward to seeing one another and catching up with our mommy friends again. We are now reconnecting at parties celebrating new babies, egg hunts, and 40th birthdays. We see one another as a group less often but when we do there is love and acceptance and comfort.  And laughter.

There is nothing like those friends you make when you first become a mom. It is like your freshmen year in college all over again but thankfully we all had our own homes. We were in this amazing place that we had all been so eagerly anticipating and yet the instruction manuals and outsiders advice did not really do justice to the overwhelming responsibility that comes with being a mom. These women got it. 

We recently celebrated one of the mom's 40th birthday. When did we get so old? Actually she is old, I still have a few years to go before I hit 40. Though from all I hear it sounds fabulous really. We had dinner together, enjoyed some wine, laughed through the evening and shared stories from our lives (amazingly a group of 7 women can have a night of talking that does not contain mere gossip and competition). I have been so blessed by these women! Thanks to all of you for continually letting back in after my journeys away. You are all AMAZING!