Day 1: You Were Never Meant to Walk Alone

 Welcome to 31 Days of MOM Awesomeness!

This largely unedited free-write is linking up with the annual Write 31 Days Challenge. // indicates the start and stop of five minutes. Today’s prompt word is WALK.  Go!

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// My arrival was met with bloodshot eyes and abject failure. Baby was finally asleep, but mommy was ‘finished.’

Day 3. Why does no one warn you about day 3?

“How are you, my friend?”

The tears started afresh and out of her mouth gushed all of the insecurity and self-doubt that had ravaged her heart and mind for the last hours.

“I can’t do this. I’m failing. What is wrong with him? What is wrong with me? I’m so tired. I’m so sore. I can’t even think straight. Why am I crying? Why is he still crying? Oh my God, I think I’m gonna die.”

I hugged her and let her spend her tears on my shoulder. I remember that truck, the one that rolls over you without warning, over and over and over again. Her real mother was an ocean away―I felt the weight of maternal compassion.  When the tears were spent, she sat, and I made her tea.

“What am I going to do?” she asked me.

I gently looked in her eyes, and answered, “Well, the first thing you are gonna do is open that door there.” (On the other side of their apartment door lived thirty-five gap year students who were aching to hug their friend and see her beautiful baby).

“Noooo, I can’t. Look at me! I’m a mess. I don’t want them to see me like this. I don’t even know what I’m doing yet.” //

“I know,” I said gently, “but YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO WALK THIS ROAD ALONE.”

“The Word says that ‘God sets the lonely in families…’ (Psalm 68:6). We are your family, my darling friend. You are no longer alone.

“The very reason that today feels sooo horrible is that there is no one here to share it with you. Those people outside that door, they are the answer to your pain. You are empty, and they have love to spend on you. You need to let them in.

“Just open the door.”

So we made a plan. I baked some brownies and brewed the coffee. She washed away her tears and then rested on the couch.

And when the time was right, we opened the door together.

Thirty-five walked in, not including the multitude who floated in unawares. We saw and felt the difference.

• Eager young people lavished hugs and compliments to both mom and baby, and
• ministering angels brought comfort, encouragement, confidence, hope, peace… and the first glimmers of joy again.

Oh miraculous wonder, that God uses His children to be HIS hands and HIS voice. Click To Tweet

And the atmosphere changed.

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Unfortunately, this true account of my dear friend is far too common, not just among first-time mommies, but people in general.  We shouldn’t be surprised―one of the enemy’s oldest tricks is to ‘divide and conquer.’

If ever you notice that a brother or sister has ‘disappeared,’ please be Father’s hands and heart. Go… find them and call them back from the isolation.

We were never meant to walk this road alone. Click To Tweet

To read more of 31 Days of MomAwesomeness, click here.

For more information on the Write 31 Days challenge, check out Christina Hubbard’s site!