I was never the kind of person who dreamt of becoming a Mom. The thought of having a child of my own was one I rarely entertained, and when I married my husband in 2011 I had many other accomplishments to strive for. These included getting my Bachelor’s Degree, both of us getting a full-time job, then a house. After we checked those boxes only THEN would we even consider having a kid of our own.
Fast forward to the day after Thanksgiving 2016 and I had a sneaking suspicion my body was trying to tell me something. My “life plan” was going fairly well, but while we had checked off the degree and the house, my husband was still only working part-time with no benefits. I cried when I saw the “+” in the pregnancy test window. We were barely making ends meet as it was, how the hell were we supposed to bring a kid into this? It was 7 am and my husband was rudely awakened from his post-Thanksgiving-meal slumber to my screaming “BABE! I’M %$¢&!^~ PREGNANT!”.
After some back and forth about our options, disbelief, and lots of crying (me), we solemnly accepted the facts: I was pregnant and I was going to have a baby. A kind of resoluteness overcame me, and I suddenly trusted everything was as it should be.
You know that kind of overwhelming, unexplainable peace that washes over you and you just know everything is going to be alright?
Once I surrendered completely to my new life trajectory, an amazing thing happened. My husband received a call for an interview and accepted a position for a full-time job within 2 weeks of finding out we were pregnant. I reference this time in my life often when I start to feel lost or out of control. The Universe/God has a plan more beautiful than you can fathom once you trust you’re taken care of. And of course, having my son was an enormous turning point in my life. I was suddenly hyper-aware of how strong my body and mind were. Honestly, it was after birthing my son and reveling in the profound impact of the experience that I started my podcast. A podcast to highlight strong women.
To think, the woman who had no plans for kids has had her life catapulted in amazing ways by having her son. I’ll never be the one to tell a person they should or shouldn’t have children, but I will always acknowledge that mindsets and philosophies change from time to time, especially if it’s the will of a higher power.
