Category: Connect
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Cry, But Not Alone
Sitting on the floor on the darkest side of the dresser, I sat rocking my baby, stifling my own sobs, and praying I wouldn’t wake my husband. We were living in my parents’ house until the drywall dust settled in our very first house. The days of being displaced stretched out before me–we had been […]
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Putting In The Time
It started with a cough. A deep, hacking cough that shook my entire body, right to my core. Literally. I coughed for months—straight through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. My bronchitis sounded worse than it felt, with one horribly embarrassing exception: every time a cough took me by surprise, a drop of pee did the […]
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Friends Who Do Not Fear My Pain
I am a MOO, which has nothing to do with cows, although that would spark a smile. In my life, MOO stands for Mothers of Offenders. The word offender just made this all so serious. I am the mother of an offender. This is my smashed-heart story. That I am a mother at all still […]
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The Desk
A huge slab of wood took up space in my laundry room until two years after our first daughter was born, the reason it was initially purchased long forgotten. While I was on maternity leave with our second daughter, my husband carried the slab down to our unfinished basement. When it reemerged, it had been […]
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Too Much Happens Before Coffee
Faintly aware of the familiar ethereal tune of my cell phone alarm, I swipe the clock icon toward “dismiss” to silence the symphony of chimes that interrupt my late-morning dreams. I suppose I should get up, I half-heartedly muse while glancing at the time: 8:03 am. Stretched out alone in our queen-size bed, I ponder […]
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The Best Decision I Didn’t Want to Make
Do I really want to do this? I was eight months pregnant. Four hours of tossing and turning now counted as “a good night’s sleep” so I could have one at least every now and then. Sitting in line at a coffee hut, waiting for something called a “White Zombie” which promised even more caffeine […]
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The One Who Walked Away
On the third day of unpacking and still surrounded by boxes and packing paper up to our ears, I decided it was time for a breather. We had just moved to Northern Virginia, an area I had never heard of or visited before we arrived. My husband and our 3-year-old son were out running errands, […]
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No Bandwidth for Family
We moved from the old house—the only house our big kids had ever known—to have a basement like the one we have now. There was more to it, obviously: The old neighborhood was transitioning from Family-Friendly Oasis to Fast-Paced Urban Hub. All the affordable and sensible improvements we could make to the structure of our […]
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Thank You Very Much
“I am going to need to speak with you in my office,” the doctor said, and I thought nothing of it. I was so thrilled to see my baby kicking around during the ultrasound that I didn’t foresee that something might be the matter. “Your baby’s brain and all major organs are fine,” he leaned […]
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Growing Back Together
I pull into a parking space facing the doors of the coffee shop, put the car in park, and freeze. Butterflies flit through my stomach and up into my throat. I run my sweaty palms up and down my thighs and take a deep breath. I see her pull into one of the front parking […]