Birmingham
I was born with wandering in my blood, so the move to Birmingham to attend Samford University was only supposed to be a discipline in passing through. But then, as is often His way, God took my best laid plans and twisted them into a story I could not have imagined myself.
My husband, Jeff, and I met while coaching gymnastics. We got married in 2002 while working our way through college. Eighteen years after my wanderlust sent me South for a season, I’m still here and settled into this state now happily called home. And y’all (yes, this Yankee girl will use that Southern colloquialism from time to time), what a Magic City ours truly is!
Our family loves the green spaces, parks, campgrounds, bike paths, hiking trails, gardens, and waterways so accessible to us. When my soul craves room to roam, Birmingham does not disappoint.
These days, I’m a Christ-following, stay-at-home mama who homeschools the kiddos and manages a three-ring circus of controlled chaos. My husband is a Physician Assistant at UAB’s Trauma and Burn Intensive Care Unit. Together, we lead a small group at The Church at Brook Hills each Sunday morning.
Moms
Waiting for our family to grow proved tiresome for me. As my girlhood friends aspired to careers as nurses, veterinarians, marine trainers, flight attendants, and school teachers, my desire was to be my mom. A mama. And my road to motherhood proved more difficult and painful than I ever could’ve imagined.
Jeff and I struggled through seven long years of infertility and its fall-out: fear, frustration, deep disappointment, anxiety, and all the things one might imagine when you feel your body betrayed you. We sought advice and treatments. They failed. I fought the bitterness creeping deep within my heart.
Infertility, unexplained or otherwise, is surely a sorrowful and lonesome road. Year after year after year, I cried silent ugly tears as mamas around our congregation stood on Mother’s Day and received thunderous applause from those surrounding them. I sat.
But then one year, I stood–at last pregnant with a much longed for child. Three-and-a-half years after the birth of our first baby, Jeff and I found ourselves waiting, not so patiently, for more children. Our prayers were answered in rapid succession with three more children birthed within three short years. I am now Mama to Ethan, Mason, Silja (“Seel-yuh”), and Anja (“On-yuh”). They are my joy and my very great delight.
Blog
Writing has always been a passion of mine. It’s an opportunity to share thoughts, wrestle with questions, and discover my truest self. Yet as a mama with four very young children, I find quiet moments to write are few and fleeting. By the time I rush to a computer, that thought has flown into the fog of mom brain. I stumble back to the mountain of laundry or dishes never done, defeated. But I think it’s important, especially as mamas, to take care of ourselves and intentionally carve out time for the delights of our hearts. So I find myself thrilled to be welcomed as a new contributor for Birmingham Moms Blog.
I look forward to sharing my world with all of you through words of encouragement and stories of motherhood. We’ll talk outdoorsy stuff, book stuff, homeschool stuff–just the mundane stuff of ordinary lives that make us extraordinary women and wonderful mamas in our community.
If you’re along for the ride, join our family as an armchair adventurer over at The Richey Road. We’d love to let you tag along!
Just beautiful! You certainly have a way with words.
Thanks, Amy! Happy to see you here at BMB.
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