Journaling

I am a huge advocate for journaling. I cannot stress its importance enough. I am so happy to see that a journal is put in the basket to birth mothers. Journaling not only helped me get my feelings out while I was pregnant but I have loved going back over the past 11+ when I need to reflect on those times. There have been countless times that I have gone back and read parts of my journal entries that I completely forgot about. I did a lot of journaling the years following the placement of my son. I urge you to do this as much as possible. Often times we think that we will not forget something that is so important. You would be surprised how much I have forgotten over the years and how thankful I am that I wrote down not only what happened but how I felt, what I smelled, and even what I heard. I would write down the way my son smelled, the way his heart monitor and other machines sounded, the way my body felt, and even the things that annoyed me. You name it, I wrote it down. I love going back on birthdays for example and thinking, oh wow I totally forgot about that.

Journaling is important for many reasons. I can tell you about many things that can help you mentally/emotionally and I will in the future. One thing about journaling is that it is completely your own. It is private if you want it to be. Journaling is your time to be completely open and honest about how you really feel. There are parts of my journal where I write directly to my son. I hope that he has the opportunity to read my journal when he is a grown man.

"I promise that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations. Each of us is important to those who are near and dear to us and as our posterity reads of our life's experiences, they, too, will come to know and love us. And in that glorious day when our families are together in the eternities, we will already be acquainted." –Spencer W. Kimball

I’d like to share with you a small part of one of my journal writings to give you an idea of what I like to look back on. This was 3 weeks before my due date. I would often sit in a rocking chair by my window and I would journal. I also did some journaling in this rocking chair the night my water broke while waiting for my sister to pick me up. Anyway, this was written on June 13th 1999. ---It’s 12:15 in the morning. I can’t sleep again. I think tonight it hit me that I’m going to let go of my baby boy soon. I am in my rocking chair looking out the window and rubbing my big tummy. It’s a cold, cloudy, rainy night. I hear the neighbor’s wind chimes and the crickets. It’s a very peaceful sound. ---Looking back after all these years, it gives me great strength when I read those words. Not only because of how far I’ve come, but because I remember those smells and those sounds that gave me peace during that difficult time. So again I urge you to journal even when it’s hard. It is the hardest of times that we need to journal the most.









This post was done by April Morgan!