What If You Don’t Have to Choose?

I love being a mom. I had no idea the depths of patience, love and pure exhaustion I had in me until these two crazy boys came into my world.

I’ve done some amazing things in my life and career. But you know what? As cheesy as it sounds, none of those things even come close to what it feels like to have my little toddler wrap his tiny, chubby arms around my neck and call me Mama. What a gift.

Of all the things I’ve ever done—or will do—what I love the most, cherish the most, and what I’m the proudest of, is simply getting to be my boys’ mom. In fact, it’s so important to me that, honestly, it’s easy to lose myself in that sometimes. It’s easy to find my identity there and lose sight of other parts of me. And there are other parts of me.

I think we do that as women sometimes, don’t we?

Before I was a mom, I had other things I loved to do, other things I liked about myself, and other things to offer the world. I bet you did too. In fact, I bet you still do.

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We all live in this tension between all the things we love, and it always feels like we have to choose. But what if we don’t?

What if we could do both—be an awesome mom and still use our gifts, talents, education and passions? What if we could raise crazy kids and chase our own dreams at the same time?

Regardless of where that stirring in your heart starts, I want to tell you that you can. It’s okay to love your kids more than life and, at the same time, want more for your life. You just need to go for it.