Behind the Scenes: #SurprisedbyMotherhood

I took this photo the other night after running a Twitter party for my job. An hour of socializing in 140 characters or less, encouraging women, cheering for one another in the hard parts of community, and feeling a little less alone in the big vast interwebs. It’s a job I love, crazy strange hours and all – and these parties for me take two computer screens, a phone, Voxer, spreadsheets, two screens for Twitter, one for TweetChat, two Google Docs with chats and a partridge in a pear tree.

Ok, no bird.

But you get the picture.

It’s not the kind of job I ever imagined having when I was growing up, because it didn’t exist. There are parts of it that retain those first timid dreams of working as an editor, and I’m sure I imagined there would be late nights and long hours but never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined THIS.

Or that it would all happen from home, with toys under foot and my daughter’s leftover dinner still sitting on the table beside me. Around the edges of that photo are the refrigerator I sit beside, covered with photos, letters from Compassion children I keep forgetting to write to, animal magnets that have snuck into my work space and my little one’s latest artwork. There is the pile of recycling and a trashcan I always forget people can see in video chats, or the microwave that gets more of a workout than it should. I didn’t factor those pieces into the working woman equation in my head because a) I never assumed I’d work from home and b) I honestly never dreamed of being a mother. I dreamed big and lofty about career paths, college choices, homes, cars, and the types of friends I would have – but it never included a family.

But God had other plans for us, for me. And in a story that I will one day share on these pages, He transformed my heart by breaking it, by changing my focus from corporate ladder climbing to toddler chasing, and impressing on me the desire to let women know that they are loved, that the titles of the world don’t matter, that we can’t do it all, and that you – sweet friend – are doing a great job.

Motherhood for me is constant trial and error, weighing heavily on the side of error. It’s working surrounded by piles of dirty dishes and learning to love the dust bunnies and crunched up Goldfish crackers that keep me company. Motherhood is messy, unpredictable, selfless, glorious, impossible, and the best thing that has ever happened to me – and a blessing I never knew I wanted, but God knew I needed.

Behind the scenes of that photo? It’s not just messy tables and yet another random sock on the middle of the living room floor. It’s a team that includes a mama who knows my story – and in telling hers has healed parts of my heart that I didn’t realize were still raw. She is a storyteller like none other and her words can make me sob one minute as she recounts how God gave her the names of each of her children, and laugh the next as she weaves brilliant lines like “God has nothing to do with PopTarts” in among one of the most beautifully encouraging books on motherhood I’ve ever read.

Lisa-Jo Baker is a woman I trust with my heart – and she shares her own story of being “Surprised by Motherhood” in her book that releases today, on April Fools Day, because doesn’t motherhood make us all a little bit foolish and more foolishly in love? Maybe you’re not a mother, but you know one, and you have one. And that’s all you need to be blessed by these words that cross continents and languages and let’s mamas around the world know that we all struggle. None of us are perfect, we can’t do it all, and yet – maybe this hard work of motherhood might need it’s own superhero cape.

{Email subscribers click through to watch the video trailer}

So here are the details:

• Head here to read the first three chapters for free {click on “Free Chapters”}
• Then, when you are desperate to read the rest, you can buy it {affiliate link} here – and consider stocking up for Easter & Mother’s Day gifts?
• And when the story sinks deep in your heart and you fall in love with South Africa and this family, head here to keep helping us do something big with our small offerings?

Oh…and don’t forget to link up on this post for Behind the Scenes? I’d just love to hear your stories!

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