One of my "Imaginary Friends"

June 8th, 2003 was probably the best day of my life. That was the day Corban was born and I became a mom, something I had wanted since I can remember. But, something any mom will tell you, no matter how much you have read, baby-sat or dreamed, you never can be really prepared for what motherhood will bring. It's new, radical, and completely individual in every family. I loved it! But, sometimes, when the days got long and I wondered if Corban was eating enough or whether I would get to fold that load of laundry or even eat a hot meal again, I went where any modern mom would go for support and information: The Internet. There, I found Baby Center. During my pregnancy I had signed up for the e-mails Baby Center sends out showing your baby's growth each week. I knew there were message boards but really didn't pay them any attention until Corban was a couple months old. That's when I found out that there are message boards for every aspect of parenting you can imagine! Along with these boards there are also boards that are grouped by the month and year of the birth of your baby. This is where I found the most useful information and, really, just a sense of not being alone. However, when our babies were about 6 months old, things began to get a little catty (we later realized that this seems to happen on almost every board at around the 6 month mark. Female hormones, much? LOL). So, a couple women formed a private board on a separate site and we have been the So Not Drama Mammas (SNDM) ever since. Although, to be honest, we are human and have still managed to create our own drama here and there. However, this really has just been an amazing group of women who have supported each other over the last nearly 7 years through thick and thin, sickness and health, jobs, more children, crazy marriages and just real life stuff. I am a better mom because of this group and, I hope, I'm a better friend and even a better Christian because of my experience with my fellow Mammas. We have women from all over: from New England to the California coast, several in Canada and even one from New Zealand!

Being spread out like this means that most of our connections are through our words on-line and the pictures we have shared. However, whenever someone travels they usually try to meet up with whoever they will be near along the way. I have met up with about 7 of the ladies so far. It is always almost a surreal experience in how completely normal it seems to meet each other in person! It's like picking up a conversation right where you left off. In fact, we are so familiar with each other that we will often have 'sightings' of each other or our kids out in public when we see people that look like one of the ladies or their kids.

Last weekend, one of the Canadian mommies, Marianne, had some business in Ohio. First she looped through Indiana to meet one of the other mommies there. Then she traveled on to Ohio for her meeting and afterwards drove to our house for a visit. Sadly, since it was business related travel, she didn't have her kids along. Marcus was born in June '03 like Corban and coincidentally, her second boy, Damon, was born in August '05 just like Sydney. We took Marianne to the Hartville Kitchen to give her a taste (ha ha) of our area. As always, it was so fun to get to visit and catch up with Marianne in person. Everyone I have met has been exceedingly kind and fun to be with. Poor Mike pretty much ended up taking care of Corban, Sydney and Jared during dinner while Marianne and I chattered away!

Here is Marianne and I before we headed out for dinner:

Since we are always talking about what we have learned or read on-line (if you're a friend of mine you have probably heard me refer to them) we realized pretty early on we needed a way to refer to each other. We do call ourselves the SNDMs, but my friends IRL (in real life) wouldn't have a clue what I meant so I was always explaining myself over and over. Mike started calling them my "Imaginary Friends" since for so long I only knew them through the Internet. Us SNDMs were talking about this and the idea of "Internet Friends" also came up, along with a few others whose husbands also referred to us as imaginary friends. So, we often joke that these are our IFs, for Imaginary Friends and/or Internet Friends. But no matter what, these ladies are FRIENDS. What a blessing!

Thanks for going out of your way to visit us, Marianne!