Guest post: New Normal

Today’s guest post is by Gerry Blumberg of Flashlight…taking one step at a time. For more great insights from Gerry, subscribe to Flashlight!

I will never forget those first couple of weeks after the birth of my baby, Melissa. I was so excited to be a mother and while my mother, visiting from several hundred miles away, was caring for us, life was a breeze. All I had to do was take care of this sweet baby and somehow the rest of the details of my life moved along smoothly.

However, the day arrived when my mother returned home and before I could catch a breath, my life exploded around me. All of a sudden, I barely knew how to get through each moment, let alone each day. The ordinary tasks of life challenged my organization skills in ways I could not imagine: laundry, shopping, house cleaning, laundry, meal prep, errands, and just sleep eluded me day after day. This beloved baby who started out spending most of the day asleep now seemed to be awake and crying all the time. A quiet dinner and conversation with my husband was soon a distant memory.

The joys of motherhood seemingly disappeared, replaced by the inescapable responsibility of caring for this tiny person. I thought life would surely get back to normal if I just worked harder. Yet, the harder I worked, the more disappointed I became at the lack of control I had over any part of my life.

One night about six weeks later, I sat rocking my sleeping baby after the 2 AM feeding. The moon shone on her peaceful and quiet face and once again, I said to myself for the hundredth time, “When are things ever going to get back to normal?” It was really part of an ongoing prayer with my Heavenly Father. Yet that night I heard in my heart, the still, small voice that can only come from Him, “You are going to have a NEW normal now.”

Oh, that was it. I was to stop trying to go backwards to the old way of doing things and look forward to something new. As this simple idea took hold of my heart and mind, the weight of anxiety and frustration dropped from my shoulders as I let go of my expectations. Life, as I knew it, changed forever and for the next eighteen years, we rode a roller coaster of high adventure. I am so thankful for the gentle nudge to let go of the past and move forward in anticipation rather than fear of the unknown.

I love to tell the story of “the NEW normal” to first-time moms—that there is hope if we let go of our expectations. Life continues and now “my baby” has three daughters of her own and I have the privilege of loving, listening, and spoiling those precious girls…and then sending them home to mom. No one told me how much fun it would be to be a grandmother!

About Gerry
I am a wife, mother, and grandmother and find each role to be both fulfilling and challenging. My desire in blogging is to encourage women by sharing experiences that may help you with questions about everyday living. I want to inspire you to take risks in your personal life, challenge you to be bold in a world of gray or neutral, demonstrate God’s faithfulness in easy and hard times, and love you in a way that reveals God with skin on.

My blog is found at http://gerryblumberg.blogspot.com.