EXCITING NEWS TO SHARE!
We are thrilled to announce that our family is growing! We will be welcoming a baby into our lives in late November.
I found out that I was pregnant the day that governor Whitmer announced that bars and restaurants in Michigan would be required to close and move to take-out only. My entire first trimester was spent in lock-down. Never did I imagine being pregnant during a global health crisis. Thankfully, as I write this, our family has not experienced the devastating illness that has affected so many. And there were certainly silver linings to being quarantined while pregnant: it was super easy to nap (which I needed to do constantly) and there was no need to make excuses to stay home when I wasn’t feeling well. Hiding the news until I was ready was incredibly easy. But fighting to stay stress-free during this time has been a unique challenge. My heart broke as I read about women who were required to give birth without their partners. I’ve worried about what the world will look like when our baby enters the world.
But I have also truly embraced this time in my life. I am thrilled to be pregnant. Seriously overjoyed. I feel deeply for my friends still waiting to conceive. I am very lucky, and at this point, all signs look good for a healthy pregnancy and baby. Despite what will be a tricky year financially for this business, we are going to be just fine. I am a privileged white woman in America. Over the past week I have remained pretty darn quiet here on social media. Every time I try to figure out what to write, it doesn’t feel right. I’m ok with that. It’s ok to struggle with the right words. Black lives matter. Black babies matter. Black futures matter, and I hope that social media movements turn into real ACTIONS. I’ve wanted to make sure that I’m thinking about what I will contribute to the cause of equality for all humans in this country. I would like to contribute more than just a simple post showing support, but I’ve felt lost and unsure about what to do.
So over the past week I’ve thought about my life at this moment. I’ve also thought about how COVID-19 and racism in this country are connected and why a complete revolution is necessary in so many aspects of our society. Healthcare, policing, environmentalism, and on and on. But I’ve decided to contribute, even if it’s small, towards an issue that hits close to home right now: reproductive health. The U.S. is in last place among all developed nations in terms of maternal mortality. Black women are more than three times as likely to die from childbirth or related complications as their white counterparts. This is incredibly disturbing to me. We have made a contribution to the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, a volunteer organization working to change policy, cultivate research, and advance care for black mothers.
I have also been reading the book “Nurture” (highly recommended) by Erica Chidi Cohen since I found out I was pregnant, but I would like to do a better job diversifying my reading and scrolling. I am now following her and checking out links to other profiles and materials in the hopes of expanding the number of perspectives I’ll receive on Instagram and other platforms.
One last item (at least for now) - I will be researching children’s books and other resources for parents and kids addressing race, religion, feminism, the LGBTQ+ community, and science. If you have recommendations, please feel free to share them with me!
With love, hope, a fierce desire to kick this president out of office by voting in November before our child enters the world, and GRATITUDE,
Courtney & Michael
