Connect Four

For ten years, my life has been a fog. It has been filled with dreams of having a baby to finding out we can't to journeying through many years of IVF to the loss of a baby at nineteen weeks, and to finally creating two beautiful baby boys who completed our lives. In those ten years, I have lost touch with who I am, what I enjoy, and how I want to live my life. After twenty years of teaching, I was ready for an educational sabbatical. It was time to develop myself more professionally, take time to slow down, and determine what was next in my career. However, when my two boys got on the bus the first day of school of my sabbatical, I sat in silence. A surge of emotions overcame my body and mind, and at that moment, I realized I had completely lost touch with who I am. My children overtook my life, and it left no time for me. Thus, I began my blog that included a plethora of life experiences that were dormant in my subconscious but waiting to resurface. I dug deep. Memory after memory, I experienced a conglomeration of emotions that needed a medium to communicate themselves. Just one entry into "Mom of Goats," I received so much feedback that I continued to write. These iterations connected me with so many people, and the mutual respect we had for each other resonated so loudly. My blog has transformed into this book. It is replete with raw emotion, personal experiences, and life lessons that I have adopted since recognizing the need to reinvent myself. Please enjoy my journey, and I hope to connect with you as well.