Time to keep my promise!

My Journey Continues by Keeping My Promise

About six years ago, I was sitting on my couch in tears. I had just walked out the back door of my own 43rd birthday party. My amazing friends had thrown me a party, but I was in no mood to be celebrating. A few weeks earlier I had experienced a miscarriage at 9 weeks of pregnancy. I finally had a positive pregnancy test after 4 years of fertility treatments, I was over the moon. I thought my dream of being a mom had finally come true. Then, suddenly, no more heartbeat. I was devastated not to mention a hormonal disaster. So as much as I was so thankful to my amazing friends for throwing the party, I just could not keep it together, so I literally snuck out the back door.

As I sat on my couch, crying for hours, I made a promise to myself. I promised myself that if I ever came out the other side of this journey, I would never forget how I felt at that moment. I would never forget how hopeless, lost, devastated and defeated I felt. So often when people go through a struggle, or a traumatic experience, once past it, they leave behind those thoughts and those feelings. I totally get that. In fact, I did end up becoming blessed with my son after a second miscarriage later that year. He was my very last embryo. I was extremely grateful as I know that isn't always the outcome for many women.

To make things more interesting , I am a single mom by choice. Yes, that's right, I had a crazy idea to try to become a mom on my own at age 40. (Best thing I ever did, but more about that later.) So for the first five years of my son's life, I was simply trying to figure things out, and as you can imagine, it was very challenging all on my own. But, I never forgot my promise.

So here we are. Today I begin. I am a mom, a single mom, a boy mom, a mom boss, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. I want to create a platform by which I can support, encourage, share, and empathize with all women and all moms. I want to reach out to the trying to conceive community to let them know that I have not forgotten. I want to be involved with the IVF community, because I was once there, women who have experienced miscarriages, I will not pretend to understand as each of us have our own journey, but I will stand by you in your grief.

And, the community I can most relate to is the moms who have decided like I did to become a mom without a husband, without a partner, all on their own. I want to share my stories and my experiences along with those of the many special people whom I have met along the way. My hope is that I can encourage, relate, inspire, and, because this all sounds very glum, I hope I can also put smiles on your faces. We can maybe even have a laugh or two with you as I have plenty of single mom stories that are pretty darn funny.

I am about women supporting women....from trying to start a family, to having a family, navigating a career, and everything in between. Ultimately, I want to give back. I am blessed with so much, so if I can share a story, or share some inspiration that helps you through a rough day, or I can celebrate you when you have accomplished a goal, or I can laugh with you as there are plenty of mom moments that warrant a good laugh.....and a glass of wine....then we have accomplished something, together!

Please join my journey! I am new at this so please help guide me, I would love your feedback as I try to navigate this new world of blogging. Thank you for reading my very first post. This was a big step for me so I hope you will come back, or share this with someone who may be in the middle of their own journey. Let's do this....together!

xo, Bren and Bray