Tag: faith
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Queer and Beloved
The last few years have taught me so much, and one of those very.important.things. has been coming to terms with the fact that I identify as queer. Something I’ve also realized is that I don’t owe anyone an explanation, or even the simple fact that Bi seems to be the label that fits the best.…
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Growing Hope
The afternoon before Jacob is born, I trudge up the stairs to my bedroom to lay myself down. September sun filters through the window, casting shadows from the orange leaves of the tree onto my bed. As I crawl under the covers, I think, this is what hope feels like, and I exhale. I’ve been…
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Naked and Ashamed
As I anticipate birthing my second son in just a few short months, I recall a vivid experience I had just a couple of weeks before going into labor with my first. It was otherworldly and practically unbelievable. Terrifying and hopeful. But that’s the God I believe in: wild and full of grace. My breath comes…
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Friendship For All Seasons
I walked through the chilly evening dark and got into the car without a diaper bag. I turned on music that I like – which at this point is anything that’s not songs from Sesame Street – and I headed out to visit a friend and watch The Bachelor. As the pregnant mom of a…
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I Want to Forgive
The sonographer sat my chair upright and told me we were finished. The doctor would be right in to discuss the pictures she had just taken during the twenty-week anatomy scan of our second child, another baby boy. As she turned to leave, she paused. “Wait.” She studied the scans she held in her hands and…
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Survivor Mama: New Life after Sexual Assault
Today I am seven years a survivor. So grateful to the Good Mother Project for publishing this piece yesterday. It’s time to use my voice again. It’s time to speak the truth. When I got pregnant, I didn’t realize I was a rape survivor. Mere hours after my son was conceived, I sat in our counselor’s…
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My 2 a.m. Friend, or The Day I Thought I’d Lost My Son
One minute we were lounging on the picnic blanket in our backyard. Jacob was happily chewing on a toy and I was happily snapping pics of him as he rolled back and forth, wiggling his toes in the air. The next minute, I noticed he had a piece of grass sticking out of his mouth,…
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And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
I walked beneath a cherry blossom tree, my 6-month-old son strapped to my chest. Facing outward, he reached out his tiny, curious fingers as I held a branch down to eye level. As his tiny hands gently closed around the soft, pink petals, I leaned down to steal a glance at his pensive face. His…
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What if There is a Life More Beautiful Than I Dreamed?
I can’t remember a time I didn’t know in my gut I wanted to be a writer, or that just as ardently, I wanted to be a wife and a mother. Sure, as a child I also thought I might be a ballerina or a taxi driver, but even so, in my imagined future there…
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Big Decisions
In the spring of 2010, I packed up all of my belongings and jumped into my trusty Honda to start a new chapter in my life. I had spent the last 5 years in Seattle, Washington, a beautiful, quirky, wonderful city which had begun to feel more like home than any place I’d ever lived.…
Erin Curlett 