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I am not my anxiety

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I was nervous as I walked into the room where the photo shoot was being held.   I had been excited for this moment ever since I got the email inviting me to be a part of the meaningful event.   Now that the time had come, though, I wasn’t sure I was ready. I sat across from the photographer – just the two of us in the room. He was friendly and easy to talk to, which lessened my nerves. “What are you most insecure about?” he asked. The answer came easily to me.   My ongoing struggle with anxiety and depression. “What about that makes you insecure?” This was a little harder to put into words.   “Most of my friends are either from work or church,” I said.   “I have to be professional at work, so I certainly don’t talk about it there.   And the church has a long history of shaming people for mental health struggles.”   When he pressed me for more details, I explained that I have been told MANY times that anxiety is a sin. That if you “just pray...

Three Weeks

It’s been three weeks since Lovebug came to live with me. Three weeks of figuring out this side of the foster system. Three weeks of navigating life with an almost-two-year-old. Three weeks of being a mom. Here are just a few of the things I am learning on this incredible journey. Foster care is all about community.   Donations from the Foster Closet.   Encouragement from friends.   Offers to bring dinner.   Late night Walmart runs by my mom.   Advice from foster parents who have been doing this a lot longer than me.   There’s no way I could do this without community. There are things that should be standard procedure.   Things that the state should know how to handle.   Things that should be an easy checklist.   Wellllllll, standard procedure might exist, but no one knows what it is.   You will have to handle pretty much everything.   There is no checklist.   Good luck. Mom life is exhausting.   ...