it's not brave if you're not scared...

Hi! We are alive and doing well! Just taking in every learning and loving moment with our little newbie!

I read a wonderful post on Pinterest the other day, a post about 100 ways to encourage a new mom. Here are a few that really rang true to me that I want to share with all of my mommy friends out there and those who will be here soon...

1. Tell her a day will come when she will sleep again
2. Offer to drive her on errands and stay in the car with the baby
3. Be honest about how hard motherhood can be
4. Never expect her to show up anywhere on time
5. She is just discovering the hard world of mother guilt – please don’t do or say anything to add to that burden
6. Anytime she is disappointed by her new figure remind her that she grew a human being – that’s a miracle and turns out miracles need room to grow
7. Tell her it’s OK to feel like you want to quit motherhood some day
8. But tell her that Trace Adkins is right and she’s gonna miss this one day
9. If she has to go back to work, assure her God will be watching over that precious baby. She is brave if she gets up while it is still dark to provide for her family
10. Go ahead and quote that goodie-but-oldie, “It’s not brave if you’re not scared.”
11. Warn her everyone will have an opinion on how she mothers but at the end of the day, hers is the only one that matters
12. Assure her motherhood is not graded; some days just surviving is victory enough
13. Tell her it’s normal to be smitten with newborn love one minute and weeping with tired the next
14. Remind her it’s the ordinary days that make the extraordinary memories
15. Promise her it will just keep getting better

To see the list in its entirety, you can find it here.