Meet the Mom
You pick, short or long version, or both?
Fiona, Aliza, Charlotte, Jackson
from right to left
sHORT
I am a stay at home, homeschool mom of 4 littles. My husband and I have been married for 10 years now! And we had 4 kids in 5 years! If you ask me that was batch 1 and batch 2 is still to come. The Hubby might tell you a different story but hey, God changed the heart of Pharaoh right? Nothing is impossible for Him! Lol! At any rate life is full of crazy, fun, MOMents with so many kids so close in age! My quick testimony is that I was raised in a Christian home and always wanted to be a mom. Then I was one, and I hated it. I had none of the fruit of the Spirit even though I loved God and was a Christian. This frustrated me so much! I felt like a failure as a mom. I felt powerless and without hope of anything ever changing. Then after 27 years of life as a Christian, being raised in a loving Christian home, a friend introduced my husband and I to the third part of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, and our lives have never been the same since!! I traded in my depression, anxiety, and fears of failing as a mom, and the Lord gave me back joy, peace and hope that only the Helper, and Comforter, the Holy Spirit can bring. About 3 years ago, after being a PA girl my whole life, we moved to sunny Tampa, FL, which is our current location. We now enjoy taking lots of field trips to the beach, different parks, and any other way we can get outside! The kids and I would love to run a little farm of our own soon, Lord willing. But for now we enjoy the wild animals just outside our window. Like the 8 foot alligator I am currently watching sun himself from my bedroom window! I am excited to see what our future holds because I know who holds our future! The Lord truly has made me a JOYFUL mother of children and I am so excited to live life in service to the King of Kings!
LOooNNG
I am a spirit filled, on fire for God, wife and mother. My husband and I have been married for 10 years now. I got married when I was only 21 and it was so much fun! We spent 4 amazing years being us before jumping head first into baby making season. As a result we had 4 kids in 5 years! It’s been a whirlwind since the kids got here but I wouldn’t trade it for anything! And if you ask me we are not done yet. However, I am enjoying the longest pause I have had since being launched into motherhood. But when the time comes I will be excited for batch 2, round 2, the second litter, whatever you want to call having more babies!
Being a mom is something I have always wanted to be! Literally from my earliest memories as a little girl I remember wanting to be a dolphin trainer or a MOM! I wanted lots of kids and I planned accordingly. Whether it was buying baby clothes from my aunts yard sale at about age 13 (clothes that I literally kept all these years and wear on my babies now)
or becoming a nurse so that I could have a job that would fit into mom life (currently taking a break from that). I have always wanted to be a mom. And then suddenly there I was pregnant with my second baby, Jackson my first born was 1 year old and I was miserable. I hated my life. I struggled with depression, and anxiety, fear of being a failure as a mom ruled and ruined my life. I just couldn’t understand how I found myself so unhappy when it seemed like I had everything I ever wanted. I had no idea how hard being a mom was and I had no power over my emotions or thoughts. I was suffering for a lack of parenting knowledge and knowledge of the word of God. I was basically just a huge mess. And when I say HUGE I mean HUGE literally and figuratively! With my first girl Fiona who is 2nd in the lineup, I gain 64 lbs!! That might not sound like a lot (or maybe it does, lol) but to a girl who is only 5 feet 1.5 inches tall it was a LOT! I was so big I had stretch marks on my calves! ON MY CALVES! Like how does that even happen!? Fast forward a few months and now I am a mom of kids ages 2 and 6 months old. Despite the fact that Fiona was the easiest baby I had, sleeping 10 hours a night at just 5 weeks old, I still was so unhappy.
Us celebrating 10 years ALONE at the beach!
ENTER THE AWESOME, AMAZING, ALL POWERFUL, best HELPER, FRIEND, and COMFORTER I HAVE EVER HAD!! THE HOLY SPIRIT! How in the world had I made it 27 years in various churches without ever hearing anything about HIM!! I mean seriously! No wonder I was such a mess the One Jesus called the POWER, the One Jesus told the disciples they must wait for before doing anything. I mean think about that. He just defeated death and all of hell, you would think He would be screaming GO! But instead He says wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit. I lived my whole life as a Christian. I could quote you bible verses and teach your Sunday school class like a boss but yet I would look at myself and think I have nothing the bible says I should have as a Christian. Love, joy, peace, patience, please? How could I have those as a MOM? The thought of being a Full Joy Mom was an oxymoron if you asked me.
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I mean yes I did have the Holy Spirit in a measure because I was a born again Christian. But that’s not what we are talking about here. I knew I had a ticket to heaven but what about everything else? Well long and short of the long story is that we had a friend, a really good friend, that kept lovingly and boldly, and peacefully, calling us in. He wouldn’t call us out, he would call us in. It’s the goodness of God that draws you in. And this was absolutely the case for my husband and I. After multiple rejected invites to go see an Evangelist Speak by the friend decided to just give us one of his cd’s. I remember being in the car driving from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia for Christmas with my family when my husband and I hit play on that CD. I have never paused a sermon so many times before in my life! He would say a sentence and I would hit pause, then exclaim to my husband “there is NO WAY that is in MY bible.”. I’d rip through my bible to find the verse and my jaw would drop to the floor every time. I was literally aww struck. How could this ALL be in MY bible and I didn’t know about any of it. Jesus didn’t just die to take away sin and get us into heaven. He died to get heaven into us! He died to restore that which was lost through sin. He died to deliver us from every affliction of the devil. He died to give us a way to be in constant fellowship with Him through the Holy Spirit. The bible calls Him (the Holy Spirit) the POWER! The Holy Spirit is the Power of God to help us take everything that Jesus paid the price for on the cross. He is a gift to us, but we have to take the gift, receive the gift and then open up the gift and use the gift. So basically my husband and I had our eyes opened to the real TRUTH of Jesus. Soon after that car ride we were filled with the Power of the Holy Spirit and our whole lives began to change, and they changed quickly. We found a new church that was teaching and preaching not just some of the good news of Jesus but all of the good news. Would you like half an ice cream cone today? No crazy I want the whole thing! Give me a whole cone not a half cone. I want the whole thing! We didn’t just want some of what Jesus had for us we wanted in all!! Within 8 months of being filled with the Holy Spirit and set on fire for God we were relocated via many amazing miracles to Sunny Tampa, FL where we currently reside. The miracles, signs, and wonders God has done both in and through us are too many to count (But I do, do my best to keep track of them). And that mess of a mom that I was is now a thing of the past! Some changes came instantly by a supernatural transaction with heaven. Other things have been more of a gradual change where I have had to, by the grace and with faith AND PATIENCE inherit the promises of God. Also plenty of good old fashioned hard work. It's not all sunshine and lollipops but one thing I know for sure is that my God is Faithful and that I can have Joy in any circumstance, in and state, and in any phase of my mom life! For that I am FOREVER GRATEFUL! Do I still have my moments? Absolutely! I am not perfect but God is perfecting me and as I seek Him first He continues to add to my life blessing after blessing after blessing. I am truly amazed by God's grace and mercy. I am submitted to the process and enjoying the ride!
I now find myself as a stay at home mom of Jackson who is 6, Fiona currently 4, Aliza 3, and Charlotte 2. How did I have 3 girls in 2 and a half years? It was truly only by the grace of God! Currently I am homeschooling Jackson and Fiona and loving it! Beach day field trips are my favorite and the ability to teach my children the truth of God’s word is the most precious gift to me. Honestly I’m just so excited to be excited! LOL! Like really, truly I was miserable before the Holy Spirit. Now, I don’t care what comes my way because I know it will all work out! The Lord promises to make all things work out for the good of those who love Him and that’s me! The freedom that comes from not having to worry about the future because I know who holds it is priceless and I want the same for you!
Come along with me as I seek Him first, as I commit my plans to Him and then watch as He shows up time and time again. The coolest part about this whole thing is that I am not special. I mean I am special! I’m very special, to God! But so are you! And everything He has done for me He wants to do for you too! That’s why FULL JOY MOM exists! There is Hope! Like real hope, not just a theory of hope or the hope to survive until you get to heaven. But the hope that God will take the barren women and make her a JOYFUL mother of children (Psalm 113:9). And by joyful I don’t mean just put a smile on your face, suck it up and “choose joy” (which is a really good thing to do so I’m not knocking it!) But what I’m talking about is an actual feeling, the feeling of Joy. Jesus cares about how you feel! He wants you to be full of joy! If He didn’t then He wouldn’t have said it, but He did! He said in His presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11), that His joy would be your strength (Nehemiah 8:10), that His Joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5), and the list goes on. So if you are reading this and your like yahhh I can relate to the first part of your story but defiantly not the second part then the first thing I would say to do is ask the Lord for help! After that I would recommend heading to my Youtube channel and checking out a series I did on the Holy Spirit. Don’t worry, it’s nothing weird. No funny business. And you don’t even have to take my word for it. I show you everything in God’s word. I truly believe the Holy Spirit is essential to every believers life. But please know that moms of all beliefs, denominations, and ice cream cone preferences are welcome here! At the end of the day it’s all about Jesus and seeing His name glorified in all the earth! This is just my story and I’m stickin to it! Haha! Thanks for hanging till the end! I hope this encouraged you and gave you hope for your mom life! My prayer for you is that you too will experience the abundant life that Jesus died on the cross for you to live, the full joy mom life!
Jesus & I love you,
*Dawn Marie*
