Happy January! We’re coming up on the last three post for the Perspectives on Motherhood and Writing series. I have so enjoyed compiling these and have gained much wisdom and encouragement from these ladies. Don’t miss the archives!
Today’s installment is from Katie of Cardigan Way. Her beautiful blog was hacked a few months ago and it’s not quite up and running again, but I do hope you visit her on a different form of social media. She has a lovely heart and two adorable babies!
Why do you write/blog?
I blog because I began a journey of needing to understand and find God’s goodness around me. Psalm 27 echoes with confidence that we will “see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” I hear people talk about God’s goodness and I just couldn’t concretely understand that phrase, especially in the midst of pain. The day that I penned my first blog post on Cardigan Way was the day after our second miscarriage after five years of wanting to add to our family. I had already experienced the gamut of anger, confusion, and bitterness and this verse from Psalms was pulling at me. At that point, I was longing for heaven. And YET, God was promising it here and now, on earth, “the land of the living.”
How long have you been writing/blogging?
I’ve been blogging at Cardigan Way for 2 years…but with the recent arrival of our adopted twins, I don’t know that I can call myself a very faithful blogger at the moment!
How has your current season of life impacted your writing/blogging?
I’m a new mom, an adoptive mom, and a mom to twins. When we adopted, I found myself experiencing emotions and having thoughts I’d never before even considered, one of the first of which is this profound way that becoming a mother causes you to simultaneously look forward and backward. I find myself sitting on that thought a lot, though I haven’t yet written much about it as I’m still trying to write through the journey of our adoption story.
How has this season of life changed your writing habits?
Can I just say that I thought I was busy? I was part of the administrative team at the school where I taught elementary students, working on my Master’s, fundraising for an adoption, in the adoptive process (which is at least a part time job!), and also a minister’s wife with lots of church things on my plate. I was blogging at least once a week with all of THAT going on. I even blogged while we were away adopting and waiting out a NICU stay and interstate clearances.
And then the babies came home.
My husband and I have six month old twins that we adopted at birth…with six days’ notice that we’d be bringing home two! We literally brought them home to a RUG. Launched immediately into the throes of new motherhood — with such little warning or time to prepare — was AMAZING. But imagine being pregnant for six days. I think I haven’t slept or produced a coherent sentence since we received “the call.”
All of that to say, I feel now that I owe it to my readers and myself to tell the story of our adoption in little snippets, so that’s my current, lofty blogging project. Because of these two tiny ones now in my life, I’ve gone from blogging at least once weekly to once a month…at best!
What is your writing/blogging battle cry?
I’ve spent two years looking for — and FINDING — God’s goodness around me and just trying to throw that out into the world. AND, this was all before the twins, before we knew where we were headed in adding to our family, not knowing even if we WOULD become parents. I found and wrote about goodness in all sorts of places: nature, secular books, even businesses that have used their platform to BE good.
And again, this is God’s goodness “in the land of the living” before the twins were a remote possibility, which I must clarify because I in NO WAY want to declare that God’s goodness hinged on a positive outcome in the particular journey of becoming parents. He’s good. You can see it everywhere. Period.
When I finish our adoption story (spoiler alert!!), I plan to come full circle to God’s goodness, the original intent of my writing at Cardigan Way. I’ve been sitting on some big thoughts regarding goodness in the midst of adding these two precious ones to our family…and I think it may be surprising. I’ve pretty much written that post already and just trying to fill in the gaps of our adoption story in the meantime.
How does faith, writing, and motherhood intersect in your daily life?
Most days, the extent of this intersection is to list my gifts (a la Ann Voskamp)… And that is perfect for me. In the space of a couple of lines in my notebook, I can record His grace in the midst of this season of new motherhood, I can trace the evidence of His goodness around me, and spend time thanking Him for the beauties and struggles that come with this new role.
Katie Eller is a new adoptive mama to six-month-old twins, a music pastor’s wife, and a graduate student. Essentially, she hasn’t slept since January. When Katie has a few extra moments, she is perfectly content with a great book, strong coffee, and rich conversation. She {intermittently, at the moment} blogs at Cardigan Way.
Emily C Gardner 
Oh Emily, thank you again for asking me to be part of your series. I often read things I previously wrote and think, “Wow. That came from my brain?” And truly, I needed these reminders today, even from my five-months-ago self! (The clue being that we celebrate 11 months today, so my answers above can now include mobility!) Thank you for the gift you are giving us with this series, friend!
Thank you for taking the time to reflect on motherhood (in all stages) and writing for this series, Katie! I loved what you said about this being like a younger version of yourself cheering you on – a good encouragement to keep putting pen to paper during this season, if only to look back and remember…