My village

The saying is very true..."It takes a village to raise a child" and I think I have a pretty great village.

I do not know what I would do without the help and support of family and friends. I am not typically open to help. I like to offer help, but I do not like to receive it. Somewhere along the way that became a sign of weakness for me. I don't know where it stems, I'm sure a few thousand dollars and a good shrink may be able to tell me, but alas, I don't have that or the time so I self diagnose.

One of the toughest lessons, but most important lessons (not the most important, but it does rank up there) I learned was to let others help. At first (and even now some) I felt like their offer to help was because they felt I was inadequate to do it on my own. The slip of a $20.00 bill meant I didn't have the funds to do or buy whatever. The offer to wash my kids clothes was because I didn't wash them myself. The offer to give my kid a bath before I picked her up, meant they didn't think I was going to give her a bath that night, or that I never gave her a bath. The request to go into the pantry and grab whatever we wanted and take it home, meant I didn't have enough groceries or food at my house (we have plenty I promise). It took me a LONG time and some serious soul searching to get to a place where I was comfortable with help. Then opened another can of worms. I didn't and don't want my friends and family to think now I expect it. So when they offered help in any capacity I would accept it but also stress that they did it only because they felt they had to and that they probably thought I expected it. Oh the internal struggle went on. And then, it hit me...no matter what anyone does or doesn't do I'm going to struggle with it to a degree. However, I have to realize that they don't do it because I expect it or because they feel bad for me...they do it because they love me and my little bug more than I will probably ever realize.

My village is awesome, they know how to help and when to help and they challenge me to be a better mom. A better daughter, sister, niece, aunt, cousin, friend, colleague...and without them I would not be able to do all that I do for my bug.

I rely a lot on my village, they are helping me raise my beautiful sassy spunky bug and for that I'm forever grateful!