Encouragement

A few weeks after Caroline was born, after all the baby gifts stopped coming in the mail, I got a large envelope from Amazon addressed to me.  I didn't remember ordering anything, but that didn't mean I hadn't.  I was still a bit hazy from lack of sleep at that point.  In fact, I hadn't ordered anything.  It was a gift from friend and mentor, Heather.  It was this book:

The note inside simply said, "I read the first page and knew you had to have this."  Or something to that extent.  I was truly touched by her generosity to send me something out of the blue like that.  And I was interested to read it, but I was too exhausted to start it right away. 

Cut to a few days ago, I'm feeling lost in a few of my mothering decisions and situations and I sent Heather an email asking for advice.  She wrote me back just the right encouragements, but also pointed me to Sally Clarkson's blog, I Take Joy.  I'm sure Heather has referenced it before on her blog, but I'm not sure I've ever taken the time to follow the link and read much of anything over there.  Well, this morning, I did.  I read this blog post called, "Pick up your baby!  Do to them what you would have done to you!"  It was spot on with how I've been feeling lately, and so affirming to me.  When I was newly a new mother  (can one be a "pro" at four and a half years in?), babies were a mystery.  Specifically, my Lucas was a mystery to me.  I read books that advised feeding schedules and asserting my role as a parent right from the start.  Granted, I didn't follow these things to the letter, but I was so afraid of "ruining" him by lack of intentional parenting, that I was much more regimented than I needed to be.  I've been thinking a lot lately of how differently I'm viewing parenthood this third time around than I did the first time around and how much more joyful and peaceful and contented I feel about it all.  (I find it particularly ironic that now that we are pretty sure we're done having babies in our house, I am feeling finally prepared and happy to care for babies!)  Anyway, the few minutes that I took to read the first post on Sally's blog got me thinking that I'd really like to spend a lot more time reading what she had to say and that maybe I'd take nap time today to do just that.  That's when I remembered about the book Heather sent for me, and that Sally Clarkson is one of the authors of the book.  I put the babies down and while Lucas played outside before his rest time, I got out my book and started reading. 

I'm one chapter in and I'm so encouraged already!  This IS just what I needed, Heather!  I've ordered a copy for one of my dearest friends who is so very much in the same phase of life I am and I'm looking forward to sharing the reading of it with her (paragraph by paragraph if that's all we can sneak in at a time).  I've found Sarah Mae's blog, too, and hope to be able to read more of it, as I'm reading the book and Sally's blog, too.  If you are a mama of young children (or older children) and you want to be able to hear (or read) someone say, "I know how hard it is.  Keep at it.  There is hope and it will get easier!", just do yourself a favor and get this book.  Read the blogs.  Find friends who will encourage you.  It is hard to find time for these things (believe me, I KNOW!), but they will be balm to your ragged, wounded, stressed, stretched-thin self.

(This is not a paid endorsement for Desperate.  It's an encouraging book and I want to encourage others, too.)