{"id":266,"date":"2010-03-15T07:31:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-15T07:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/dandelionlady\/2010\/03\/birth-story.html"},"modified":"2010-03-15T07:31:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-15T07:31:00","slug":"birth-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/dandelionlady\/2010\/03\/birth-story.html","title":{"rendered":"Birth Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div style=\"text-align: center\"><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/724\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_tjLA0xEvPDU\/S55HWOOu0RI\/AAAAAAAAAfc\/GJGwlrLSjsQ\/s400\/dandelionbirth.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448871046267457810\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: auto;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: auto;text-align: center;cursor: pointer;width: 400px;height: 281px\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div>This morning I was smelling the damp earth as a light mist fell on all of us.  Parents and children lined up outside of the school waiting for my daughter\u2019s kindergarden to start.  I was talking to another mother,  just starting to show her pregnancy, still dealing with the nausea of her first trimester.   I found out from her that Ailee\u2019s preschool teacher from last year is due any day now with her own new person.   It made me think about my own experiences giving birth.  <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Of course, I did birth art,  I photoshopped the sketch above that I drew while pregnant with my firstborn. (I\u2019ve been into dandelions for a while now)  I look at it now and I remember how naive I was.  I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Then,  one daugher and one miscarriage later, I painted this:<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\"><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/724\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_tjLA0xEvPDU\/S55PBVSuwYI\/AAAAAAAAAf8\/Dx2lC8XXW5Q\/s400\/IMG_2085.JPG\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448879483479048578\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: auto;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: auto;text-align: center;cursor: pointer;width: 306px;height: 400px\">It was a hard time for me.  I was dealing with a lot of depression at the time and creating this painting was really therapeutic for me.  I wanted to share one last painting that I created  about a year later than this one.  <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/724\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_tjLA0xEvPDU\/S55PCPLj2ZI\/AAAAAAAAAgE\/0IYqcK0upiI\/s400\/IMG_2082.JPG\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448879499018230162\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: auto;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: auto;text-align: center;cursor: pointer;width: 316px;height: 400px\"><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/dandelionlady\/files\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_tjLA0xEvPDU\/S55HXdLPctI\/AAAAAAAAAf0\/QW2RNlv1pUk\/s1600-h\/IMG_2041.JPG\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>\n<div>It is an image of the winter solstice.  The frozen earth giving birth to the sun after the longest night.  It was my way of talking about coming to terms with pain and fear and sadness.  I\u2019m not much for words most of the time.  I tend to express myself with imagery and actions.  Sometimes I think the more words there are, the less meaning there can be.  So that\u2019s my birth story.  Three lost pregnancies and two daughters later,  I\u2019m pretty content with it, because really, this is less a story about loss or achievement and more a story about love.\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/724\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_tjLA0xEvPDU\/S55HW0CnooI\/AAAAAAAAAfs\/PbEkqujy2v8\/s1600-h\/IMG_2032.JPG\" style=\"text-decoration: none\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin:0px auto 10px;text-align:center;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;width: 400px;height: 337px\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/724\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_tjLA0xEvPDU\/S55HW0CnooI\/AAAAAAAAAfs\/PbEkqujy2v8\/s400\/IMG_2032.JPG\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448871056417202818\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/dandelionlady\/files\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_tjLA0xEvPDU\/S55HWOOu0RI\/AAAAAAAAAfc\/GJGwlrLSjsQ\/s1600-h\/dandelionbirth.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I was smelling the damp earth as a light mist fell on all of us. Parents and children lined up outside of the school waiting for my daughter\u2019s kindergarden to start. I was talking to another mother, just starting to show her pregnancy, still dealing with the nausea of her first trimester. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Birth Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This morning I was smelling the damp earth as a light mist fell on all of us. Parents and children lined up outside of the school waiting for my\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/dandelionlady\/2010\/03\/birth-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birth Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This morning I was smelling the damp earth as a light mist fell on all of us. Parents and children lined up outside of the school waiting for my\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/dandelionlady\/2010\/03\/birth-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dandelionlady\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-15T07:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/dandelionlady\/files\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_tjLA0xEvPDU\/S55HWOOu0RI\/AAAAAAAAAfc\/GJGwlrLSjsQ\/s400\/dandelionbirth.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Melissa Hill\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Melissa Hill\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/dandelionlady\/2010\/03\/birth-story.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/dandelionlady\/2010\/03\/birth-story.html\",\"name\":\"Birth Story\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/dandelionlady\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-15T07:31:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-03-15T07:31:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/dandelionlady\/#\/schema\/person\/52a1b9ac87f8588fd445fc0d67b241c0\"},\"description\":\"This morning I was smelling the damp earth as a light mist fell on all of us. 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