Balancing Act: Behind the Scenes of a Single Mom Building A Career

Wow, y'all. The last few weeks in my life have been hectic. If you've followed me or my content for long, you know I'm a single mom - and the effort to manage the work-life balance between parenting and career isn't always easy, which is why I put so much focus on personal growth and self-care tips.

I love when life is easy and the balance all but maintains itself, and I love when life things are quiet enough to allow me to focus on writing, but it just doesn't always work that way and this past few weeks, I have to say...well, life took over. My youngest daughter and I had a simultaneous storm of doctor's appointments, my spiritual dad had open-heart surgery, one of my mentors had a foot surgery, a friend of mine had a personal issue she needed support and advocacy through, and we had a minor family accident that resulted in emergency surgery. Oh, and one of my bonus babies got married! 

But wait...

• "What's a bonus baby?"
• "Is that like, a step-kid or something?"

So, storytime: when my family first started with our church, it didn't take long before I felt led to step into leading a student group - and I was putting up some powerful resistance. Like, "No way, God. You got the wrong girl. I literally can't even."

But God doesn't really argue, he just keeps nudging. For a whole year, my oldest daughter called me Jonah because she just thought I wasn't bold enough or interested enough to step up - which I guess is fair, since I don't generally like or relate to kids. You know, they're all mess and snot and slang and stinky armpits...I'm not a fan. But it all finally came out one day when I told my daughter it's not really a Jonah thing, it's a Moses thing. Spiritual leadership is a huge responsibility, and my truckload of mom-guilt testifies pretty loudly about my lack of qualifications.

Kind of like Moses standing in front of the burning bush trying to tell God he couldn't go speak to Pharaoh. But that story ended with God throwing up his proverbial hands in frustration and saying, "Fine, you sissy. Take your brother."

Not exactly, but whatever, you get the point.

So over the course of that push year with God, he didn't send my brother, but he filled my life with kids. My daughter brought all her friends home. They rode in my car, slept in my house, ate all my groceries. Once they were driving, they'd show up at all hours. And I fell in love with them. With their perspectives and the ways they bloomed right in front of me, leaving childhoods behind to embrace adulting with all the worry and the insecurity and yes, the varying levels of success.

One of them used to sneak into my room at night while my daughter was sleeping, and she'd lay in my bed and whisper stories of her childhood, tales of her experiences. She'd confess her thoughts in the dark, her little face close on the pillow next to mine. And then, when she'd unloaded her heart, she'd say, "Okay, I'm gonna go to bed now," and she'd make her way back to my daughter's room for the night.

Last weekend she got married. I cried all day long, in fits and starts. I cried as she panicked because she thought she was taking too long to get ready. I cried when she was laced into her wedding gown. When she got her hair curled and her make-up done. When she stepped into the church doorway in her finery and I watched her new husband fight for control of his emotions.

Actually, I ended up being so busy just being there, I hardly took any photos!

But since life is all about rolling with the punches and I tell people all the time to give themselves grace, here's a little of the grace I'm giving myself these days. I'm not as caught up as I'd like to be, but I'm happier than I've been in years, and there's still amazing progress happening on all fronts.

STILL FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM is coming along a little slower than I had hoped, but it's coming. Chapter sixteen is nearly finished, which means there are only a few chapters left before this book is ready for editing!

We're thirty-two weeks away from the second edition release of FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM, and I've been busily creating promotional materials to use in the lead-up to release day. There's a book trailer, a little promo reel, some graphics for sharing and/or printing...and here I am sitting on all of them because it's too early to let them go. Let me tell y'all, this is an absolute exercise in patience for me, but I hope it'll all be worth it when this book goes into the hands of readers who need the hope in Christine's story.

In the meantime, I sat in with a local book club this week to talk about another of my books, which was an absolute blast! I had the chance to answer questions about the characters, the motivation behind the story, what it was like to write that story, and the personal parts of myself that were included in it. The ladies of the book club chose another novel of mine for their February read, and when they invited me back to talk about that one too, it got me thinking about next year...

What do y'all think about a release party of some kind for when FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM goes live? I'd love to do something local, but I also thought about doing some kind of online event - and if I did, what would you like to see included? Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments!

And now I'm off to work on that unfinished chapter. Until next week...