More Than One Thousand Words: Friendship & The Poconos

Sometimes I feel badly that Eliot doesn't get to do as many fun things or have as much social interaction as other children his age because of my anxiety, but looking back over my posts from this Summer makes me feel pretty good. I think we (Ted & I) have done a really good job at making sure he's always got something coming up; something to look forward to. I think this boy has had a really great Summer so far.

This post is really special to me.

I found out I was pregnant with Eliot on New Year's Eve 2007. In early January 2008, I had stumbled across a message board with hundreds of women who were also expecting in September of 2008. It was awesome. I visited that message board several times a day because someone was always asking/answering a question that *I* had too. At first, we were all going through the same pregnancy-related things (nausea, heart-burn, charlie horses--- I even remember one specific post asking if anyone else felt as though "tiny midgets were constantly stabbing their vagina." I responded that "Yes," unfortunately I knew exactly what she meant by that.

We all bonded so closely. After our babies were born, we asked questions about breastfeeding, babywearing, why is he/she crying?, why won't he/she sleep?

Then posts started to become about milestones... they rolled over, they sat up, they crawled, took their first step, had their first birthday, and so on...

When questions seemed to slow down about our new children (as we seemed to finally be getting the hang of it), they started to gear more towards us, mothers. We chatted and shared stories about our old lives, hurtful things, crazy things, stories of love, stories of inspiration, weight loss triumphs and goals. We supported and encouraged each other when things got tough for one of our own. We've had several moms who have miscarried (myself included), some even had late term losses. Some had lost their mothers. One Mama fought the battle of her LIFE for her unborn (and then born) baby when she found out her baby had CDH (congenital diaphragmatic hernia) and was facing very scary statistics about her babies survival (Anyone remember the story of Quinn?). We've gone through divorces, talked about sex and other TMI subjects. We've bitched and moaned about our husbands. We even rally together when one of our Mamas needs it. We've collected money for Mamas who have been through just the worst kind of pain and done something awesome with it (prepared meals, spa days, passes to theme parks, cleaning ladies).

How many people go through ALL the things mentioned above without a support system and somehow *I* was blessed enough to have found this group of women. I have tears in my eyes writing this.

I had the chance to meet some of these Mamas through the years. Some came to me for photo sessions and some actually live in New England.

I met my best friend (aside from my husband) in this group. (I love you, Nikki).

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to travel to the Poconos in Pennsylvania to meet 17 of these women (well, 14 because I had already met 3 of them prior). These women came from Canada, Texas, Montana, California, New Mexico, and several other states to rent a house for 3 days and get to know each other in real life. There were also 6 babies there! (Not any of our September babies, but younger children). I Even got to meet Quinn-- and witness the miracle that she truly is.

Although, I didn't stay in the house (I didn't feel up to making a 4.5 hour drive alone and didn't think I wanted to leave Ted & Eliot anyway), I did have the opportunity to meet these wonderful, amazing, inspirational women.

Nikki's family owns a cabin about an hour from the meet-up house. Ted, Eliot & I stayed in a hotel a few minutes from there. We spent most of our time with Nikki and her family, but Nikki and I did drive (an hour away) to the meet up house and spent the whole day there on Saturday.

The meet up house was near Nikki's Dad and she only gets to see him a handful of times a year so she asked if I wouldn't mind tagging along while she said hello to him. The whole ride there, Nikki had me in TEARS. SOBBING. I had heard the story of her Mom (how close they were, how she was diagnosed with lung cancer, and how it ultimately took her life in 2005) over the internet, but hearing it in person was a totally different experience. The details of her story touched my heart so deeply (as I start to sob AGAIN right now writing this). As if that wasn't bad enough, we got out of the car and went in to meet her Dad. Her Dad was so happy to see Nikki and was very happy to show me all the photos of his beloved wife. Nikki says he still lives as if she passed yesterday and that is very much the impression I got as well. I tried to stay strong as he showed me photos and told me stories of his wife, but as soon as I saw a tear roll down his cheek, I lost it 100%. I feel blessed to have met him, if only briefly. There is something inspiring about meeting someone who loved his wife so much and so obviously.

Well, thanks to all of that, I arrived to the meet-up house with my make up smudged and my eyes puffy (after I had spent so much time trying to make myself look decent to meet these women!).

Nikki and I walked in and it was so... ODD! I have seen all of their photos a number of times on Facebook, etc. but to see them all in person was surreal. Once we settled in though, we had a great time.

We played games, chatted, LAUGHED A LOT, shared stories, ATE A LOT, and just got to know one another in real life. It was amazing. Again, I don't know how I got so blessed, but I am thankful I did.

A full day didn't seem long enough. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it to another meet-up in the future. It was an awesome experience.

Here's the group of us (can you tell who was photoshopped in?)