Birmingham
I have lived in Birmingham for most of my life. Born and raised here, I spent my teenage years itching for the open road, only to find myself aching for the warmth and familiarity of home a few years later. It would be ten years before I could permanently return after heading out-of-state for college, but I haven’t wanted to leave again since moving back home five years ago.
There is much to love about Birmingham, but my favorite bits and pieces can be found outside. We have beautiful trails, rivers, scenic roads, farms, and gardens all within the city limits. Living here with children is like living within a forest playground. We never run out of adventures!
Mom
I am a mom to two incredible kids. Lula is four years old, and Wilder is one-and-a-half years old. I love watching their tiny selves develop into whole, happy people with their own inner worlds and interests. When I can stop and appreciate this process of finding footing, both literally and figuratively, the stress of motherhood melts away. However, this level of mindful parenting is much easier said than done! The pull of two children and their conflicting, simultaneous, and constant needs will prove plenty enough to make even the chillest of mommies want to go hide in a dark closet with the leftover Halloween candy. Now, nearly five years into the parenting game and a real estate career later, I still struggle with this. But, I have gotten pretty good at hiding the emergency chocolate bars!
Collective
I’m excited to serve other moms in the Birmingham area by doing what we all wish we could do with one another already–share my experiences on this parenting roller coaster in the hopes it will help other mamas feel less alone. There is a special type of loneliness that accompanies motherhood. We are never alone, yet somehow many of us feel lonely more often than not. It doesn’t have to be this way if we reach out and share with each other!
Personally, motherhood was not a part of my master plan until it just, well, happened. I was in my final semester of graduate school, starting to apply for real careers, and I had an IUD. One might argue I actively planned AGAINST becoming a parent. Yet, there it was, the eight bold blue lines (because three tests wasn’t enough to convince me). I was terrified, and, just as I feared it might, my life changed forever.
If I could reach out to my former self, the scared 29 year old at the precipice of professional becoming, I would affirm both her fears and her excitement, because, while yes, career plans would be paused, burned, and reincarnated multiple times later on, she would also experience a personal evolution like no other as motherhood bloomed within her, and it would be so, so beautiful. 
I might not tell her she would love it so much that she’d have a whole second baby two years later, though. That bit might have sent her over the proverbial edge!
