Personal Testimony - "One More Time"

At our latest meeting, we were touched to hear one mom share with us how she came to seek out a MOPS group.  It's not easy to make yourself vulnerable to strangers and even harder to try again and again, after being rejected before.  Sarah told us all that visiting our MOPS group was her promise to herself to try and reach out "one last time."  I'm so glad she did.  She is a wonderful friend and a bright ray of sunshine when she walks into a room.  In a group full of women that are "outsiders" of some sort, she is now just ONE OF THE GIRLS!

Here is Sarah's story:

I've always been a real social person. I was involved in lots of things personally, and also with work. That is one things about teaching, they will keep you busy. I was very used to my nonstop life style. Things slowed down a little when I met Jason and got married. We bought a nice piece of land "out in the country" and we thought that when our kids got to be school age we would build a house out there so the kids have a chance to be involved in sports. More involved than the schools in Frisco and Allen would allow due to enrollment size.

The summer of '07 is when the housing market began it's slide down. On a whim we decided to put the house up for sale and see what happens. The next month is when we found out we were expecting our first child and the house sold. At this point we weren't sure what we were going to do. We had the land but our original plan was still about 5-6 yrs away...now no house or houseplans. We quickly drew up some blueprints, moved in my with in-laws, and prayed that this was the right thing to do. Now we had a baby due date and told the contractor he had to be done by then.

The pregnancy and that school year passed quickly. My biggest problem during this time is that we had all our stuff stored in many places. It drove me crazy not being able to organize things or set up a nursery. Just boxes of stuff for 7 months. It drove me crazy! Feb 23rd 2008 the house was "done enough" to move it and 5 days later Joe was born.

Now here I was a new house, new baby, recovering from a c-section/pneumonia, and now a stay at home mom an hour away from all my support systems. LOTS of adjustments!! I threw myself into the role of mommy. I loved Joe but he was a crier. People told me to put him in the car. Ok, the second he was in his carseat he would scream. That means, an hour of screaming to the doctor and an hour back. It was an hour everywhere. Then if the screaming wasn't bad enough he LOVED his bed. That means he would only sleep in his bed. Now I was truly trapped at home. I was miserable!!! No friends, stuck in the house in the middle of no where. The adjustments in my life were huge and wearing on me.

My thought was I would meet people at church here in town. I knew one of two things would happen: 1. They would welcome me with "small town" open arms or 2. See me as an outsider. Unfortunately, it was the 2nd one. I thought well if I can just make it to when they are school age, I can meet more people through the kids. That was a long way off. I was lonely NOW!

During this time I took it day by day and kept myself busy with the kids, cleaning house, etc and tried to put it behind me. Then I became pregnant with our 2nd son (They are 19 months apart). During naptime I would search the internet for mom's groups and ways to meet new people. Being this far out and napping only in his bed really limited me. I knew about MOPS and I put my zip code in to find the closest one. My choices were McKinney (45 mins away) or Commerce (40 mins away). Sadly, I was thinking the McKinney stereotype (remember I had lived in Plano/Frisco for 8 yrs) or the smaller town of Commerce. I had the rejection of my small town church still in my mind. I decided that I would try the smaller town one more time.

In Jan 09, 2 months after Levi was born I told my husband I was going to make new friends and headed to a MOPS meeting in Commerce. **This is where began to get choked up*** I walked into the small room (where we serve the food now) and there were about 6 ladies. They were so nice and we even did a craft. I was ecstatic!! I went home SOO excited. I could not sleep that night because I felt that I finally found it, I found people who will accept me. I could not wait until the next meeting. The girls of MOPS quickly became my friends. I had friends!!! My husband told me he was glad to have the "old Sarah" back. These women made me feel special and the sadness and loneliness left me. I am so grateful for these women. Not only my friends, but godly women too. Through MOPS I found way more than I was ever hoping for. I feel so blessed to be part of MOPS and thankful for my FRIENDS!