The last first birthday celebration is coming soon. One. One is big. It’s a celebration of having survived so many sleepless nights. It marks having made it through a whole slew of firsts – first cry, first smile, first roll, …
A Mom’s Story: Why Do I MOPS?
I MOPS because I was a mom with a toddler, a marriage looking at its tomb, and a freshly emptied womb. I was 12 weeks pregnant when I lost my second baby and gained a depression that started on my bathroom …
The Day I Got Schooled by Maya
I met Maya Angelou in New York at an event for the last book she wrote, Mom and Me and Mom, in 2012. I waited for about an hour in line to meet her and as I was waiting, I was …
The Holy Work of Motherhood
Lying on a cold, hard doctor’s table in the middle of the night, too scared to utter a cohesive sentence, I began bartering with God. If only he’d allow this child to live to term. If only he’d stop my …
Something Better
When I met my husband, Alexis, he called himself an artist. During those pre-dating days, I often stopped by our college cafe where I knew I could find him transforming a blank wall into a European-looking street. When he painted …
Two Simple Things Said
It happened shortly after my daughter was born. People started saying the same two things over and over again, and like rain after a very long draught, they gave new life to a part of me I never thought about …
How IKEA Made Me Want to Go to Church
Like many churchgoing couples who become parents, we stopped attending services after the birth of our first daughter. We couldn’t figure out how to make it work while our infant was taking four naps a day; and any time we …
Pay. Attention.
This was originally posted on Coffee + Crumbs. Consciousness breathes in and out as often as my chest inflates with air. Sounds of the baby crying out for me to nurse her find my ears, muffled. I oblige because I …