hold on to me

‘Hooooo-old. Hold on to me, hold onto me…’ is a popular song on the radio currently that I think goes along well with a concept I have been thinking of a lot since my dear Sailor girl came. Do you have something you LOVE? Like love love love it, totally passionate about it, crazy about, that you hold dear in your life? You have given so much time to and it means a lot to you? When you talk to others about it or share it with them, you can’t help but smile and you are refreshed after having the opportunity to spend time doing, developing, sharing this something? I think we all do and finding out that thing with each other can help each of us connect, feel valued and important, and strengthen relationships.

The something I get to physically hold, think, plan my day around is my Sailor Rae of sunshine. The first 2 months of Sailor’s life were very stressful for me. Like with any new experience, I had some (a lot a lot ) of learning to do as a new mom that I totally didn’t understand before she was here. Getting to be her mom now and forever, I am inspired by Sailor- I feel her bright spirit and sense the need and want to become the best that I can be, for her as well as myself. Because some things, major things, were a struggle for me to figure out with Sailor, my sense of self-worth, love and value have expanded as we have worked together to make life awesome. I treasure my Sailor girl because she has provided a plethora of ever-growing experiences that have helped me get a glimpse of how precious each of us are to our Heavenly parents. You could say I am obsessed with her, how could I not be? I made her, I am the means of her nourishment multiple times a day (she needs me- and oh how I need her!!!), I get to love her and spend loads of time with her. To love her has taught me again and again how our Heavenly Father feels the same way and more for each of us. Sailor is first one of His spirit daughters that Nate and I have the privilege of raising here on earth. That truth is so exciting to me because that also means that God is going to help me. We are going to continue to have incredible (and yes, hard/grueling/challenging), ever-life changing experiences together that will make life rich with happiness and increase our bond because I know, “Our Heavenly Father did not send us here to fail, but to succeed gloriously.’–Richard G. Scott

As I write this, Sailor is 2 weeks away from being 6 months old. She lights up my life and I love having the privilege of being her mom, giving her love, and holding her each day. My family is what I hold dear to my heart and what I currently and forevermore will be spending most of my days helping, being with and thinking about. When someone else wants to hold Sailor, my joy goes up and up that someone else delights in her, this tiny little human I am investing (and loving it) so much time into. People have become so respectful and a lot of the time, people do not even ask to hold others babies but admire them from a distance. This is a great thing, especially if the mother does not want other people to hold the baby or the person admiring the baby is sick. I personally, love when people ask to hold her. She is a social one and gives smiles out to everyone, which makes any situation brighter.

The song I started with refers to someone being held because they are unsteady. I shared how I prize my SaySay and appreciate when others hold her and benefit from her radiance. Things are going really good in our mother-daughter relationship. This is being said in the midst of sleep training and introducing more and more solid foods into her consumption… ha ha but it is nevertheless so fun. Things have been really hard, even discouraging for me at times, and although we are in a great place now, I know challenges will rise as we both continue to grow. So I will need some steadying. I will need someone to help me, to help her, to hold what I prize so much-my sweet girl. We need each other and I need you to help me become steady again amidst whatever is occurring in our life and I hope to be able to do the same for you. I seriously am so stoked that we get to form and deepen relationships, we are not in this journey of life alone!  Holding on to each other, being interested in or excited about those other things that we each hold dear gives us opportunity to cultivate or strengthen our relationships.  What do you hold dear? I want to hear!

Here are some other things I hold dear:  (do you share any of them?)

My husband! woo woo

The gospel of Jesus Christ

Hiking

Family time

Gardening

My phone (and all its capabilities)

Travel

Friends

Flowers

Trying new recipes

Temples

Fruit

Fine art LOVE LOVE LOVE check these artists out (ps do you have others I should be aware of?! PLEASE send them my way)