No Limits

Welcome back to Her Story Year 2. We have been having a blast planning out the rest of 2018, and we have some exciting stories to share as well as I’m sure some amazing strangers that we will meet. Today we are focusing on our February story. This next story is one that you will want to read repeatedly. Not because of my amazing writing, (we all know that is not the truth) it will be because this young mom has so much wisdom and is quite the inspiration. We are not the only ones who think so, a whole community of people look up to her and love the story she has to share. I think this woman is the cutest thing ever and has an even greater heart. I mean it was love at first conversation because she is a social worker as well so I knew I would fall more in love with her heart for people and the world. Enough about my thoughts of her… here we go, our February story.

Her name is Mollie Glasgow

When I first reached out to Mollie last year, I could not wait to interview her. I already knew part of her story, but was so excited to get the inside scoop of her world. Mollie picked the perfect place for us to meet and that truly represented her life, Her Adorable House. Emily and I pulled up to Mollie’s house and thought we transported into the cutest southern neighborhood ever. That was just the taste before walking into Mollie’s House. Both Emily and I were so entranced by all the cute decorations and we wanted to steal everything… I promise we didn’t, we just wanted to. Before we got to sit down with Mollie, we got to meet her husband and kiddos playing upstairs and by golly, they are the cutest family. And this story fits in the month of February because that house is truly filled with love, despite any hardship, you can see how much love is in that household. It was the perfect way to start our time with Mollie.

We decided to move downstairs the most adorable vintage chic couch and start our conversation with Mollie. Per usual, we started our conversation to get Mollie to tell us a little about herself and what she wants all you readers out there to know. She answered, “Well, I am a wife. My husband, Jarrod, and I got married super young. I was 19 when we got married. We were kinda high school sweethearts; we did a long distance thing. We met at church camp when I was young, so that is what happened. It sounds super cheesy, but we have always been best friends. We have been married eleven years. We have four kids. Not that we ever thought we would have four kids, but we are in it. I grew up in Tuscaloosa, and I am the baby of the family. We were of family of all girls. That baby roll defines a lot of me because I was treated as the baby and I loved that roll. I went to Montevallo for social work… (we had to pause here because Emily and myself both went to Montevallo and it’s fun to talk about all Montevallo things and so we continued). I went to Montevallo because it was close enough to home but far enough away. I went with my best friend and she is still one of my best friends. For a long time after college, social work and my career was my heart and passion. I thought that I would be a social worker for the rest of my life, even after having my first two kids I was still working. Now, I stay at home. I’ve grown to love staying at home but it has taken some time. I’m a little surprised with where I am, I love it, but it’s surprising.”

Mollie is a social worker after my own heart and I just knew the deeper we would go into the conversation that she would give so much perspective and wisdom and she did not disappoint. We went on to discuss one of the most difficult things that she has been through and she explained to us they they’ve had some difficult stuff through life but one of the most challenging was the adoption process with her son, Fox. She describes that time as taking her by surprise with how challenging things were, especially since she had a social work background. She mentioned that they were so ready to jump in that they did not realize how difficult the process would be. She describes, “We just felt a major calling. It consumed all our thoughts. Almost like, we didn’t have a choice but to do it. It was a very confusing process and very personal. The process looks different for everyone: when you’re matched, what conditions your kids are in when you’re matched, etc. For us with Fox, after we were matched with him, a month later he had open-heart surgery. Part of our heart was in the hospital but we weren’t able to be with him. We got some updates, but overall it was just a crazy experience. I am a very open person, but I had a hard time opening up to people about it. Part of it was because we wanted to stay strong and we wanted everyone to be excited and not worried about the adoption. Another part of it was that it was such a personal thing and that there was no one else out there that could understand that my baby was across the world. That was very difficult because it was a very different experience than I’ve ever been through. It was so emotional and I felt very helpless at times. I really had no control. Thankfully, I grew a lot in my faith during that time because we had to trust God for every penny, every step of the way, all the paperwork, timing for travel; we had three kids at home. At the time it was all going on, I was always thinking it was so hard but now looking back there are times that little things come up now with the kids and I can look back on that time and remember God’s faithfulness. I hold on to that time, we made it through it. We have our son here. Our marriage survived it, and we are stronger because of it. It really is a daily reminder for me to look back on.”

We got to further discuss specifics of their adoption process and what that looked like for them. They started the process when their youngest daughter was seven months old and it pretty much took them a year from start to finish. It went a lot quicker than they expected because they were originally adopting from Hong Kong and ended up adopting from China. They knew from the beginning they wanted to adopt a child with Down syndrome because they were already living that life and that was all they knew to begin with, but to start the process you have to get specific so they saw the need in Asia. They started with Hong Kong because Down syndrome was one of their main needs, it was less travel, and it was more affordable. Little did they know that would change. Mollie had a friend that was involved with an organization called Morning Star in China, which Mollie was also aware of and this friend asked if they would consider adopting from them. Mollie knew that you could not just ask the organization for a baby, so she did not quite see how they could adopt a baby from them. Her friend reached out to morning star to see their need and saw a little boy that she wanted Mollie to go look at him. Mollie didn’t see how they could change to China just for logistics reasons, but they emailed their agency to see if it was even possible. The agency informed them that if they switched to China, it wouldn’t guarantee that they could adopt this specific little boy because they would have to find his file, which was a slim chance. Well God works miracles because the agency found his file, and they were able to adopt this amazing little boy. This family has such a heart for their children and she is one rockin’ mama.

We went on to discuss one if the greatest things that has happen in Mollie’s life and here is what she had to say: “Without Wren (their second child), there would have never been a Fox. Wren is the best thing that has ever happened with my life. It totally changed what we thought our life would look like. When I was pregnant with her, I went into labor with her at 35 weeks, which was different from the first time with Willow because I did not even go into labor without an epidural, so I didn’t know what was happening. After a few days at the hospital, they were trying to stop me from going into labor and her heart rate dropped so I had to have an emergency C-section. When she was born, they took her to the NICU, and told us she looked great. 30 minutes after that they took us into the NICU to see her and they told us that she had Down syndrome. It was amazing it happened the way that it did because she was right in front of us and I remember thinking that she looks like our kid. I just saw how much she looked like Jarrod and I saw that, and it just was not scary to me. God gave us total peace in that moment. She was there and she was ours. I never saw myself being a special needs mom. I have a lot of friends who've chosen down syndrome, who have adopted a kid with down syndrome without having a biological kid with down syndrome, and I think that’s amazing, but that was never something that crossed my mind. I honestly didn’t know that people my age had children with Down syndrome, I was that disconnected from that world. It just opened up our eyes to a whole other group of people. We just had this instant, amazing connection with people across the world and we were welcomed into the most beautiful community of people.” Mollie goes on to discuss with us how she really wasn’t upset about Wren but was more upset that she didn’t feel like she was the right one fit to be her mom. She speaks some wise words for you other mamas out there because this experience made her feel more confident as a mom because she realized that no matter her diagnosis, she knew Wren the best because she was her mom. Wren also allowed their family to gain some perspective on things. At first, families are told about all the developmental struggles that there will be but with Wren, it truly was a blessing that things were slowed down because Mollie described how Willow (their first child) was growing up so fast, so it allowed life to slow down and to really appreciate the small things. Wren has truly made such an imprint on their family and the people around them and has changed their world for the best.

With all of Mollie’s wisdom, we wanted her to share some more mom advice for you moms at there or soon to be moms. She answered, “The things that I have shared have been some awesome things that have happened, but part of my motherhood journey has been growing to become a confident mom. Don’t second guess yourself, you know your kid the best. I really used to worry about peoples’ opinions, I felt like I was in a fish bowl for everyone to look in and judge me, but now when people try to give me advice, I try to take that with grace and to know they are trying to be supportive in this moment. If it makes me feel like a bad mom, I know that’s not where they are coming from. Now with social media, that is really hard because sometimes I get mom shamed at least a couple times a week. I’ve learned that I just have to do me and that’s all that matters. You just have to give yourself grace, which is hard but it’s okay to say that things are not fun at times.” Mollie continued to talk about us about what it’s like being a mom, and she really just loves her babies so much. She described the personalities of her littles and she really does know them to a tee. So all you mamas out there, Mollie really does know what she’s saying, you know your kiddos and be confident in that.

As we also do, we ended with asking Mollie to define beauty for us and if she finds herself beautiful. She replied, “Most days yes, I do feel like I’m beautiful. It really depends on my attitude. The times I feel down about my looks or myself, it’s because my perspective is off. I will say that beauty, inner and outer, is something that is connected with how you feel about yourself. I have been working on that a lot, since I have three girls. I want them to grow up as confident girls. I want them to feel beautiful in every way. I have not always been in that place. I feel that it is very important. I have been working a lot on viewing and loving myself on how God loves us and that has helped a lot. Also, I think there’s an accountability factor because of have little girls looking at me every day. Even when you’re getting dressed. I used to think I couldn’t wear things and I don’t want my kids to be self-conscious about what they’re wearing so now I try to be more confident in what I’m wearing, even if I don’t like myself in it. I just own it. I also think one of reasons I am now at the place I am is because my husband make me feel very beautiful. He is always telling me that I’m awesome and how cute I look. He even compliments on specifics with my outfit that day or my hair that day. Now my kids have started complimenting me when I walk out in my outfit, and he’s taught them that.” Ladies, it’s so important to have people in your life that encourage you and make you know how much you’re worth.

We truly had a blast hanging with Mollie. Her and her family are really going to change the world so just watch out because they’ve already started making such an impact in their community. Mollie and her friend, Jamie have an amazing message that they’ve been spreading for a while now called “More alike than different.” It started as a hashtag (#morealikethandifferent) and really has become a movement for people to focus on our similarities rather than our differences; we truly are more alike than different. If you want to support this message, you can follow them on Instagram at more_alike_than_different and you might think about buying one of their amazing t-shirts (I’m buying mine this week). Here at Her Story, we love supporting other women doing awesome things, so go out and support these women.

Mollie, thank you for being so kind to let us come to your home and get to know more about you. I know your story will influence several women who really needed those words today.

Another thank you to the amazing Emily, as my partner in all this, thanks for being the best pal anyone could ask for.

And thank you to all you readers out there, that read my rambles in between the amazing words of our women that share their story. We have been very appreciative of all the support and if you don’t already, please follow us on Instagram at herstorybham or on Facebook search Her Story. See y’all next month!