Changes, they are a comin’

Hey All!

So things have changed so much over the last year. We’ve decided to put our house on the market, our kids have all gotten larger, and I’ve settled into the role of praise and worship leader at our church. I have been crazy busy and as you all know, balance is hard.

I’ve decided to examine who and where I want to be in this life. I want to be more present, and I want to do the things that my heart calls out to do. One of these things is being a doula. I had a really hard time balancing life when Dixon was born. We had just lost the girls a few weeks prior when I found out I was pregnant. Life was hard. In the year since he’s been here though, I’ve found balance was so hard to find. That’s one of the places I really struggle with. I like to be everything for everyone all the time and now through therapy I’ve found that just isn’t possible. I have to have priorities. I have to say no to good things sometimes. And I have to create a balance that may not work for anyone else but does work for my family.

Being a doula is one of those areas. I would love to have a thriving business being a doula, but this is just not the season for us. So while my heart cries out to help women in birth, I’ve decided that I can make it work without making my family struggle. Being a doula is something I feel called to do, but the business aspect was just not working for me. I support all doulas who charge, so that isn’t where this is coming from. It’s truly coming from a place where my heart can be happy, I can be happy doing what I love, without the aspects that stress me out. So I have decided to become a not for profit doula. I also am dramatically limiting the number of births I attend. I don’t know exactly what this will look like as I’m trying to figure it all out, but I know that it has to look like something I can be happy with. Serving women in pregnancy and labor is something my heart desires, the business part isn’t, for now. Maybe that will change in a year, who knows. But for now I’ve found peace in it.

A recommendation and an update

Hey everyone,

It’s been a crazy few weeks! Wrapping up school, getting “more pregnant” ;), and three kids tend to keep me pretty busy. But I did have the pleasure today of meeting up with a mama to work on her birth plan! She took advantage of my “mini mama” service. It was a lot of fun and I always enjoy helping mamas prepare themselves for the birth they desire. So without any further ado, I’ll share this glowing review 😉

I am currently 38 weeks pregnant with my second child. My first is 6 years old so it’s been awhile! 🙂 I figured since I’ve gone through this experience before I knew what I was doing, but as I did some research, I realized that much has changed since I was last pregnant and there were so many options that aren’t readily offered that *are* available to me as a birthing mom. Yesterday I decided in a frenzy that I needed a birth plan because I had more questions than I thought I would. Echo showed up and showed up BIG! Within 24 hours, she dug into some research for me, had an outline prepared to walk me through a birth plan and met with me for a few hours to work out what my goals are for my birthing day (in 6 short days- planned c-section). You have a gift Echo and I am grateful for you! You are simply amazing!

– Joy B.