One Year of GGC

This week marked my one-year anniversary with Girl's Gone Child. One. Whole. Year.

One year posting about Archer and pregnancy and strollers and sex and breasts and breastfeeding and sex-education and bikinis and poop and The Village People and carjackings and birth stories and Nanny Pimps and writing books and reading books and first birthdays and how I accidentally inserted an entire tampon (applicator and all) when I first started my period and road rage and hating Parenting Magazine's stylist and turning 25, and being a young mom and masculism and LA living and placentas and celebrity sightings and Archer's crawlapalooza and cribz and finding my way and love and war and marriage and wanting more and feeling broken. Lost and found. Being afraid. Being a daughter and a granddaughter. Being a sister. Being a friend. Being a stay at home parent. Being a Mother. Being a wife. Being alive.

It is very much true that writers write to be read and that bloggers REALLY write to be read, otherwise we would keep off-line journals. Diaries with locks and keys, hidden in our sock drawers with other private items. We wouldn't put it all out there for people to read. Typos and all, guts and entrails and the occasional secret.

We all want to be read, to be heard and sometimes appreciated. We all want to make a difference with our stories and jokes and ideas. We all need a little recognition to keep going because with ourselves we are too critical.

I started Girls Gone Child because I wanted a place to write and reflect about life with Archer and meet like-minded parents doing the same. I had no idea what a huge part of my life GGC would become. I had no idea I would meet the extraordinary people I have met through this blog, no clue I would attract an audience that extended beyond family and Uncle Frank.

But it did and I am grateful. Grateful for every person who reads what I write, for those who comment, and email and have become great friends. For those of you who lurk in the shadows and nod silently at home.

I adore each and every one of you, many of whom I don't even know by name, but who I feel I know in voice. In experience. In story and essay and rant. In the way you love your children, ask questions, provoke debate, explore your opinions, philosophies, lives. In the way you parent. In the way you inspire. In the way you write. In every word.

You have made me a better writer, mother, woman, human and I thank you for taking the time to read what I have to say, for commenting and for making me feel, in so many words, cool. I thank you for your kindness and love and perfect post awards. I thank you for being my friends, for always being there and for always being kind and supportive.

We have an amazing community here on the www and I feel very blessed to be a part of it.

From my very first GGC post to this one, I thank you. Thank you for finding me and allowing me to find you.

Cake all around!

GGC