Saturday 22 February 2014

Lets Share Honestly

I got a message this week from a friend who shared her difficult birth story with me before she knew I was pregnant.  She messaged me to apologize for being so detailed in her difficulties and said that if she had known I was pregnant, she would not have shared all the details she did.

I thought about this before I responded, I so appreciated her concern for my mental well being but the information she shared did not make me upset.

She shared her experience with me honestly, that was her experience and it was not great.  She continued to tell me she would do it a million times over to get her son because she is so overwhelmed by the love he has brought to her and her husbands lives.  If anything, I was inspired by her strength and the new love she has inside her that obviously knows no boundaries.  I don't think I quite have an understanding of this love yet but I am sure as soon as I meet my child, I will be right there with her.

This situation made me think though, about how we communicate with each other?  Do we just share the good stuff because we don't want to make others uncomfortable, or we do not want to give them the wrong impression about the love we have for the people in our lives.

Well, I want friends who will share with me honestly, friends who will tell me the good stuff and the bad because that is what life is about, at least my life is.  My life is imperfect, rough around the edges and some days are just plain harder than others.  I don't want friends who can not share honestly and just want to paint everything to be perfect because I won't have much in common with them.

Lucky for me, I do have friends that I can share the ups and downs of my life with who understand my heart and never judge me for what I say, they are just there for whatever I need that day.  I strive to be this type of friend as well.

My favourite blogs to read, especially the writers who are mothers, are the ones who are honest, who share their experience of a heart that could burst with love at any moment but also that its hard to be a mom sometimes.  Thats how I want to share and thats who I want my friends to be, because I think, its a little easier to get through those hard days, when you know you are not the only one who has those experiences.

Open up, share honestly and you never know who may feel a connection to you!

Monday 17 February 2014

A Family Of Friends

A few weeks ago we were at a Super Bowl party at our friends house.  This group of friends are the people that Tyler grew up with, their parents are friends and now everyone our age  is starting their own families and those kids are becoming friends.

When I first met everyone over 7 years ago I told Tyler that what everyone here shares is something more than friendship and he is so lucky to have a group of friends that are pretty much like a family.  I have seen this group come together to support someone through a hard time, build a deck or a re shingle roof and definitely be there to celebrate with you when something great happens.  They are great people who value their friendships and I know what they have, it is something you do not see everyday.

Tyler and I had the pleasure of really feeling this support and encouragement when we got married.  As we shared with everyone our news of being pregnant and starting a family, the support and love continues for this next stage of our life.

Its comforting to know there is a community of people that Tyler and I have surrounding us, that we can lean on and look to for advice as we enter this next phase of our life.  We call them our friends but they are more like family, one we were not born into but one we chose.

Your biological family is who they are, they are probably not going to change and I have learned that if there is something that I need from someone in my life, I have the power to fill my life with the people that enrich it, and hopefully I can do the same for them.  I have chosen to make my family over time with the people I love, blood or not and build my family of friends.

We are blessed for the great people our lives have been filled with! Happy Family Day!