About Our Family

I've always wanted to have a blog but never quite got around to starting one. I finally decided to write one about our family. It will be about day to day life, homeschooling, recipes, soccer, nature walks...basically a little of everything.

Every family is unique and ours certainly started out in a unique fashion. In the summer of 2002 I graduated from high school in North Carolina. Shortly before I moved to Connecticut to start college I became pregnant. I had always looked forward to the day I would become a mother, but I never expected it to happen so soon. I was happy when I found out but also concerned for the future. Would I still be able to go to college? How could I raise a baby on my own? Most parents learn to put their differences aside to raise their children and I was willing to do that. Yet I knew I would be a single mom because the father would not want to be involved.  He was not in the right place to be a parent so I was on my own.

I gave birth to Brendan my freshmen year of college and took the summer off to be with him. Going back to school full time with a baby was hard. Breastfeeding is something I feel strongly about and I wanted to nurse him the first year. That meant I had to bring an extra bag with ice packs to school so I could pump milk between classes. My college years were spent waking up early, taking my son to daycare, going to class and studying, picking him up from daycare, making dinner, playing with my son, giving him a bath and story, putting him to bed and staying up late studying and working on papers. I was exhausted by the time I fell asleep but I still had to get up multiple times each night to change a diaper or nurse him. There were a couple times he was sick and I was up with him most of the night, but I still had to go to class and take an exam the next day. It would have been so easy to drop out of school and get a full time job, but without a college degree I would have had a hard time making enough money to support myself and my son. Quitting is not an option when you are an only parent. There is no one else to help you if you want to take a break, fail or quit. So you forge ahead and give it your all: all day, every day. I'm proud of my college years. They made me the strong and confident woman I am today. I studied hard and made good grades and my son was happy and healthy through it all. I was determined that when he was older he would be proud of me for being a good mom despite the circumstances.

My junior year of college I met Arick. Neither of us were looking to date at that point but we became best friends and fell in love. In 2007 he moved from California to Connecticut to be with us. We both found full time jobs and I finished up the last classes I needed for my degree. We married that summer after I graduated from college with a BS in biology. After we married we moved in together and I stopped working when I was 5 months pregnant. I spent the year preparing Brendan for kindergarten. In 2008 my daughter Aricka was born. She is 4 years and 10 months younger than Brendan, but they were close from her first days. He loved to hold her and played well with her even when she was a baby. She always had the brightest smiles for her big brother. I am really blessed that my children are still close friends and that I have a husband who is such a great father to them.

Besides my faith, marriage and motherhood are the two most important things in my life. I know that I am living the best years of my life right now. I love taking care of my husband and children and making our home a happy one. It has not always been easy, but it has been good. I can't wait to see what the next years hold for us.