Discovering Mother’s Love With Our Growing Family

Today is a very special day for me. It’s the day I had been counting down towards for the last several months, ever since I saw two pink lines appear in the window of a pregnancy test I took during my lunch break at work.

“Maybe she’ll be a Valentine’s Day baby,” we told people, though for the last few weeks I had hoped she would arrive sooner, which she did. While she didn’t arrive on the holiday marked for love, in just the two weeks we’ve known her she has shifted our universe entirely.

Growing family

Fourteen days ago, our precious baby girl arrived, making us a family of three and changing our lives forever. Before her birth, I had heard and known that the love a parent feels for a child is unlike any other love one can experience, but I didn’t know until she was born what that truly meant or felt like. All these months I thought about how our family would be expanding, and of the lifestyle changes that would require of us, but I was never consumed with baby fever or excitement about being a parent. 

Then, on Jan. 31 when she arrived after 10 hours of labor, the overwhelming feelings of love, humility, and sheer joy that overcame me were unlike anything I had experienced. Suddenly, I wanted to spend every moment with her and do everything in my power to keep her safe and happy. I even wished I had had her sooner so that I could spend more time with her. 

Family support

Already, our Baby Sahana has been surrounded by love and my husband and I have had some expert guidance and support along the way: My parents and husband’s parents were able to fly in on the day our baby girl was born to see her, and my mom stayed back to help us adjust to the challenge of managing new parenthood. I’ll admit, in those first few days I felt possessive and wanted it to just be my husband and myself tending to our little girl’s needs, but now that more than a week has passed I am grateful for the help offered by our loved ones. They have a wealth of knowledge and clearly have experience raising kids, so we are lucky to be able to rely on the support of Sahana’s grandparents these next few months, as they take turns to help us with childcare when my husband and I have to return to work. 

Unofficial family

I’m also touched by the outpouring of love from the family whose blood doesn’t run in our veins– that is, informal family by way of our friends, coworkers and surrounding communities, who have shown just as much warmth and generosity as those with whom we share a last name. We have received sweet messages, well wishes and gifts from both close friends and also acquaintances we have just met. 

Furthermore, in the first few days after giving birth, I struggled with breastfeeding, and it was such a relief to get advice and words of encouragement from fellow moms, some of whom I haven’t had close interactions with before, but am now texting back and forth sharing stories and tips. I was grateful for their kind words and suggestions, and I realized that overnight I had become part of community based on one thing that ties us all together — we are moms, just trying to do the best we can for our kids amidst the challenges of modern-day parenting. 

They say it takes a village to raise a child, and in just these last few weeks I’m grateful for the love I’ve witnessed from the village that supports us.

Love Blog Challenge

This post is part of The Love Blog Challenge, a daily blog link-up every weekday in February with daily prompts. As part of the challenge, writing about family with me today are cohosts, Brita Long, creator of the Love Blog Challenge, and Kayla Whitter.

Brita is the pink and sparkly personality behind the Christian feminist lifestyle blog, Belle Brita. On her blog and social media, you’ll discover more than authentic storytelling–she’s brutally honest about pursuing a fulfilling and joyful life even with Crohn’s Disease and depression. You can follow her on social media: 

Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Facebook 

Kayla is a 20-something INFJ and Hufflepuff. She works full-time at a local university, goes to graduate school, and runs the lifestyle blog A Paper Arrow. Her favorite things include reading, drinking coffee, eating Chick-fil-A and Mexican food, and hanging out with her hubby and cat (Courage).

You can follow her on social media:

Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Facebook 

Today’s prompt is about family: Who is your family? Do you include non-blood people in your family? How did your parents model marriage to you? How do you choose to spend quality time with your family? Does your family have its own way of expressing love?

Love Blog Challenge Rules

The first 2 rules below are mandatory! (The 3rd rule is mandatory if you want to submit more than a single link). All the other rules are optional. Each link-up will remain open for 4 days to give you time to catch up. So if you don’t write Monday’s prompt until Wednesday, that’s okay. You can still go back to Monday’s link-up and submit your link. These are the Love Blog Challenge rules!

1. 1. Follow the prompt. The prompts are open-ended to give you creative freedom. But if your blog post doesn’t relate to the prompt at all, I will delete it from the blog link-up.
   2. Comment on the link before yours and at least one other link. Get to know your fellow bloggers!
   3. Yes, you can link-up an old post (like from last year’s challenge!), or even multiple posts, as long as they all follow the prompt. Please limit yourself to 3 links per prompt.
   4. Follow your host (Belle Brita) and the co-hosts on your preferred form of social media.
   5. Use the Love Blog Challenge button and/or link back to the blog link-up to spread the word!
   6. Share your posts on social media using the hashtag #LoveBlog2019.