{What it means to be a mom for the first time. // by Arianne Segerman}

I’m so very honored that my friend Arianne Segerman is guest blogging for me today. She’s sharing her heart on the thought, “What it means to be a mom for the first time”, and her words are so, so beautiful. :) Thank you Ari for letting your fingers fly with the wind…

[Click to see Lisa Leonard’s and Naomi Davis’ response to this same question.]

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It was 2002 and I distinctly remember sitting on the beach in the Spring, a good 6 months before my first baby was expected. I was attempting to take in the fact that I was not going to have another Spring with only my husband and I. Not even another Christmas. I couldn’t fathom my belly growing so big (like me in that photo above at 38 weeks with baby #1).

How does a woman wrap her mind around such a thing?

The truth is, you can’t. No one can. No one can possibly explain enough, no book can teach enough, no video can prepare you enough. Sure, you’ll have all the tools you need to deliver a baby and be a first time mom, but there’s nothing and no one out there to say, “Hey, this is what it will feel like!”

I didn’t know that my soul would break, but break open. I didn’t know that I would grow up overnight (no matter what my age was). I didn’t know that life was really beginning for real.

So I offer this to you, dear Maggie, as you enter into this new unfurling of God’s incredible metaphor of (let’s be clear, super fun and super hard) creation and life — don’t forget to embrace the uncertainty. Lean into it, surrender to where this already much loved baby takes your heart. Find who YOU are as a mother. Receive advice, opinions and instruction (plenty of people will have these for you), but filter it all through the lens of Maggie. Make your own mark on motherhood, and let it be real and true and completely surprising to you.

Being a mom for the first time feels like velvet, and chocolate, and running a marathon with no preparation. It feels like you can taste the Spirit on your lips and hear Him in your heart and like no one and everyone in the world understands you. It feels like a new era, a new club, and like you never lived before the day the baby was born. It feels like love.

Arianne is a mom of 5, with three boys and a baby girl here and one baby girl in heaven. She could talk about motherhood all day long. Ari and her family live in Phoenix, Arizona. She also blogs at Mabel + Riv and can’t wait to meet Baby Whitley. xoxo