Who were you before you became a mother?  Have you lost sight of her? Is there anyone else out there who has changed so much that they don’t even recognize themselves when they walk by the mirror? Let’s forget the physical as that is par for the course when it comes to motherhood.

The true question is how have you changed on the inside since becoming a mother?  Have you softened, grown in strength and energy or have you hardened and become numb to your everyday life?

A college roommate posted a “blast from the past” picture of me all dressed up in a business suit preparing to set off to my first professional job at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange back in the early 90s.  I stared at that picture and was desperately grasping trying to remember who I was back then pre-career, pre-marriage, pre-babies, pre-motherhood, pre-everything as I currently know it.  Seeing that picture made me pause and question where did that girl go? I recalled how confident that girl was way back then and how the confidence slowly waned over time and took years to rebuild.  Making me wonder, will I ever get HER back?  Or the more obvious question, has she been there all along and patiently sits in waiting to reemerge?

I have to guess that it is the latter for most all of us.  She is still there.  She is simply waiting.

Waiting on you to know and appreciate her worth, her value, her strength, her tenacity.

Motherhood has a way of changing us in her own space and time.

She brings out a unique beauty and boldness within us all that makes us stop one day passing a mirror, staring back at that girl who once was, saying to ourselves, look at her, look at what she has become, look at what she has been through, look at what she has conquered… look at her.

Has a single picture taken you back like this?  Can you remember that girl?  What do you remember about her?  What did she feel?   Was she full of hopes and dreams?  How has she changed?  Share your “blast from the past” picture and tell us all about her and where she is now.