Meet the Writers: Say Hello to Amanda Weaver!
I grew up just a few hours up the coast in Port Arthur, so it’s probably odd by Texan standards that I never made it to Corpus Christi until I was in my late 30’s and coming to meet the children of my boyfriend. He’s a rescue swimmer in the Coast Guard and was stationed in Houston, but his children relocated here in 2016. My first day here I cracked my ribs by slipping on the Packery Jetty (with a toddler on my shoulders – but I caught him and he escaped unscathed!). I spent the rest of the weekend recovering with all the stuffed animals the boys brought to comfort me.
A few years later we were married, and since my husband was due to move for a new Coast Guard assignment, we had Corpus Christi as the top pick to provide some much-needed family stability for my stepsons. Coming from two decades of living in Houston, it was a hard adjustment. We moved here in June of 2020 right before COVID became rampant in the area. I ended up taking a 50% pay-cut, and the job I was able to get (running a dialysis facility) is the hardest I’ve ever worked for the least amount of money I’ve ever made in my life! We were masked, socially-distanced, everything was closed – and I don’t think I’ve ever felt more lonely – having left behind friends, family, and young professional memberships to any charitable cause that had good happy hours.
And then I found out I was pregnant. I felt lost, but my high-risk pregnancy distracted me from wallowing in loneliness.
The adjustment was thankfully smooth(ish) for my daughter, Addison. She started 8th grade at Incarnate Word Academy and did that year asynchronously with a handful of other kids who remain her closest friends. She’s 15 now, and has been pretty resilient through all the curveballs life has thrown at her. I separated from her father before she had much memory of us living together, so she’s never known “normal”. I was a single mom in grad-school and she was my plus one to almost every event and as much a part of my class as I was.
She adjusted to me being a single working mom that had to use nannies to get her places. She had a lifechanging Type1 Diabetes diagnosis at age 7 – and a week after getting out of the PICU we were in Disneyworld. She was living her best “only-child” life when my career hit its stride and I settled us in an adorable house in the Houston Heights area in 2016 – and then I went on my last “first date” in 2017.
I remarried in 2019 and we became outnumbered in the house – but that was temporary because last summer balance was restored as we welcomed Harvey Anne Heloise Weaver into our hearts and home. Through it all, Addison has been a wonderful big sister and is thriving at IWA.
If you’re wondering why my baby daughter is named Harvey Anne – it’s because I lost a bet. My husband and I became “serious” during Hurricane Harvey when I got stranded at his apartment and he said if we ever got married and had kids, we’d have to name it Harvey. I laughed in his face- because I had no intention of getting remarried and certainly was not going to have another baby. It’s fitting though – she came into our lives like a little hurricane, and we are all smitten with her.
I followed Coastal Bend Mom Collective on social media as soon as I started regularly visiting on weekends (to see my step-sons) for ideas on fun things to do in the area. As we settled in, I eventually made it past the event and shopping guides and saw there was a community of women writing about real life. My therapist had been encouraging me to find a creative outlet to fill my cup – and then I saw CBMC was looking for contributors! The embrace of this community of moms has made up for how lonely I felt when we moved here, and I am so excited (and flattered) that I can share my experiences as (a military wife/special-needs mom/working mom/step-mom) with you!
