Her View From Home Writer of the Week

About three years ago (THREE YEARS AGO?!. . . I can’t believe it’s been that long) I was approached about writing for a website called Her View From Home. It has been a fun journey to get in on the ground floor of that operation and see how it has grown into a large community of (mostly) female writers who are passionate about the topics they address. It’s also been extra fun for me because my monthly posts are (usually) collaborations with my friend Rebecca. . . since we all know I do not have an artistic bone in my body and need someone else to provide the photography for anything I do.

Her View From Home has been doing a series of writer profiles and this week it was my turn. I’m posting an excerpt below, but you can click here for the full post.

Tell me a little about yourself. When did you start blogging and why?

I’ve got six kids and an opinion. That may be the briefest definition of me possible. Over the last 12 years my husband and I have helped to raise 22 kids (2 we birthed, 4 we eventually adopted) and through that experience I’ve become passionate about encouraging moms and advocating for the needs of children. Some other facts about me:  I’m a Nebraskan, the fourth of five kids, I’ve been married to my husband Brian for 12 years, I enjoy cooking but hate baking, and I secretly like politics and documentaries.

I started blogging when we had four kids and my youngest was almost one. I had two motivations:

1) I felt isolated and wanted a way to reach out.

2) I was coming to the realization that I would never be able to care for ALL the kids who needed a family, so I wanted to encourage other people to get involved.

About a year before I started blogging I was asked by My Bridge Radio to create weekly 90 second radio spots to encourage moms. Through that work I realized I had things to say that didn’t fit in the 90 second format. There was a lot I had learned in parenting so many kids from so many different backgrounds and I wanted to share the things I wish I would have known when I was just starting out.

What does a typical day look like for you?

A friend recently said, “A home game is easier than an away game” and I find that with 6 kids ages 8 and under, that is my current parenting philosophy. I am very much a STAY AT HOME mom because it’s simpler to handle things here than to take this show on the road. My typical day revolves around meeting the very basic needs of little people– feeding them, clothing them, diapering them, getting them down for naps, reading stories, bandaging wounds, talking through conflicts, and cleaning up the messes. Then I have this alternate reality where I’m writing for a couple different websites, advocating for the needs of foster kids, supporting foster moms, recording radio material, responding to emails from strangers who have questions about parenting and foster/adoption issues, writing for my own blog, handling social media for Christian Heritage and speaking at foster parent training events. It’s wonderfully bizarre and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to blog or share her/his story?

If you’re thinking about blogging, I would really encourage you to ask yourself two questions:

What is unique about my perspective?

Who am I talking to?

Those questions have helped me clarify what it is I’m doing with my blog and why I’m doing it. There are a lot of voices out there, so why add mine? I have to value the uniqueness of my experience and speak from it instead of trying to imitate somebody else or try to be the expert on every issue. I know there are lots of women like I was when I first started thinking about motherhood, especially motherhood via foster parenting and adoption. These are women who have fears but also an intense passion. Those are the people I’m talking to and when I’m writing I think about them with every post.