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Amy E

@ericksonal

1.1K

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•Dance Fitness Instructor @amyact2.era @riotdancefitness
•Disney, dancing, travel and music fill my soul.
•Enneagram 6 Virgo ♍️
•Mama. Mimi. Dog mom.

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REBELLION🏴‍☠️
“It is a necessity for growth”

You are not made to stay as one version, you are not suppose to stay in one place.

What are you doing to grow and evolve? Let us know below!🏴‍☠️. Keep the Rebellion going!
🔥📸: @van.vantage.point

#fitnessinspirationquotes #fitnessmotivation #rebellion #rebellionisnecessary #fitnessgoals #challengethestatusquo #cardio #hiitcardio #hiitcardio💦🏃🔥 #rebel

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I never regret showing up for group. Some days it is not easy to want to get dressed and drive up to salt lake and go to group....to be unscripted in my vulnerability. But these women see me, love me, lift me. And I get to do the same for them! It is amazing to me that in the midst of our own personal exhaustion we can still hold each other up...laugh....cry...release and most important....JUST BE!! I LOVE support group. I know it can be scary but if you are a Birth Mom looking for community...just a group of women to love on you I hope you will join our national groups. There are teams of people waiting to lift you up!!
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#bigtoughgirl #kneetoknee #postplacementcare #birthmom #trauma #support #seekingself

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V A L I D A T I O N

For years I blogged my experience and for years I got attacked about where I was with my experience.

I like (read: effing love) retreats because no matter where you are, no matter how you feel, you will find someone to validate where you are. ❤️

The Statue of Liberty creator said, “Give me your tired, your poor,/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”

This is how I feel about my sisters who attend these retreats.

Are you super pleased with adoption? VALID

Do you hate the adoptive couple right now? VALID

Are you so depressed we have to hug you out of bed in the morning? VALID

Are you so scared to come that we have to all talk to you and walk you through it step by step? VALID

Wherever you are, however you feel, whatever you have done... VALID. I love you. I genuinely love and care about every single woman who has come to a retreat and will continue to do so. Because even if only for a weekend, they have made an impact on me.

#kneetoknee #birthmom #birthmother #adoption #adoptionjourney #tiedattheheart #birthmomstrong

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Spent all day baking pies with my besties. #sodomesticithurts

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Amazing birth mom group tonight talking about expectations. What a good topic for 2020! We loved connecting and being with you in this time that can feel so isolating. #welovebirthmoms #kneetoknee #coloradobirthmomsupport

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Kinship cont.
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There are so many women that I love and hold so close to my heart...even if I don’t see them, even if they don’t know it, even if I don’t post about them. Sacred stewards of their stories. Some of my closest and dearest friends I don’t get to see very often....my relationships are not about daily physical interaction.
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Many years ago I sat knee to knee with a group of women that I had only been serving online. We finally came away from our FB group and did our first retreat, my very first speaking event. After that event a birth mom told me that I was disappointing in real life. That I had inspired her online and was such a let down when my “human was showing”.
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I can’t let this daily prompt go by without thanking four women in my life that have been with me through it all. When my strongest human and weakest human is showing. That have shown up, worked with me, fought for women with me, flown to every event, given time, money, emotion, especially in this past year, these past months as we have made so many adjustments and changes. Painful growing pains and life season changes. This team.
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@ericksonal @sunshinebottle @bethsbagsnmore @whittle_skittle (not pictured). To have women in your life that you don’t have to be scripted for. That the vulnerability is honest and real. When they have a literal vault of our “humanness”. We are all so different but still so deeply connected. My circle of people that truly know me, that truly see me, that truly love me is very small. It can be lonely but these women are life giving. I love you ladies. #bigtoughgirl #kneetoknee #kinship

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To our Knee to Knee:
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These incredible, beautiful and brave women continue to bring me to tears of gratitude. They continue to show up, challenge me, bring their talents and voices to the table with the desire to grow, to be better, to make our work stronger and have more impact. They poured their heart and soul into the 2021 curriculum. It is better, more applicable and more healing than ever....because of these women!! We missed @muthonigaciku but were so excited for her wedding this past weekend!
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Our fight for FREE post placement care for Birth Mothers is so personal to each of these women. Their deep passion for it to be better for women that may choose adoption is the driving force. To make sure that women are seen, served, supported. Thank you @whittle_skittle @ericksonal @bethsbagsnmore @sunshinebottle for your hearts, your friendship and your efforts. I love you, I am honored to know you and I am a better woman because of you!! #bigtoughgirl #kneetoknee #lifetimehealingfoundation #postplacementcare #birthmom

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Nov. 7 ~ Faith
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Today, we filmed our birth mother curriculum for next year. Today, renewed my faith, as it does each year, for the future generations of birth mothers who come after me. Let’s be honest, adoption isn’t going anywhere and I know that there were many before me and there will still be those after me that choose placement also, no matter the strive for preservation. I have faith that either agencies will step up or other entities will step into spaces to provide support for us; to SEE us. That those who come after me, and those who have already been in my position, will find safe spaces to renew their own faith: in themselves, in the systems that care for them, and in the people they entrust their children to.
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#kneetoknee #NAAM #NationalAdoptionAwarenessMonth #Nov7 #Faith #naam2020 #adoptioneducationkeys #aek #adoptioneducation #adoptionmonth #sitkneetoknee #educationiskey #hopingtoadopt #hap #birthmother #birthmotherperspective #birthmothervoice #birthmom #birthmama #sitwithme #adoptionawarenessmonth #lifetimehealing #lifetimehealingfoundation #postplacementcare

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Our Knee to Knee team is gathering this weekend!! Birth Mothers and mental health professionals to write an entire year of support group curriculum.
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For me, this is the most important and impactful weekend of my entire year. To host a team of women that will brainstorm and share and cry and report on what we have heard from fellow Birth Moms nationally. To write 12 months of FREE support. Sit knee to knee with them. To show up and love them. Like they deserve. Like it should ALWAYS be done!!!
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Birth Mothers have been denied true post placement care for decades!!! We will NEVER stop fighting for these incredible women and never stop fighting for agencies to show up for us AFTER our babies are placed!!!!! 2021 material will be our best year!!!
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#bigtoughgirl #birthmom #postplacementcare #domesticeadoption #grief #healing #lifetimehealingfoundation #kneetoknee

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Walking out of July I felt broken, and still do to a degree, but also somehow stronger than I was before. I know there are always struggles, but there are always good things too. It’s so much easier to get caught up in the struggles when they’re hitting one after another.

I’ve dealt with a lot those thirty-one days. My daughter's birthday. Seeing her and J&J for our visit. My church regathering in the building. Her placement anniversary. Three different dogsitting jobs with no more than 6 nights at home in between.

There's no "right" way to deal with this stuff. No one can tell you what's for sure going to work for you. They can share what they did, but that doesn't mean that things will look the same for you.

There are friends who played parts in helping me through the month, and I am so grateful for them. @tjewell is an adoptive mama from the same agency who happens to live near me - I’ll save our wild connections for another post. @while_we_wait is another adoptive mama that I’m getting to know. @stephiepredmore is yet another adoptive mama in my corner, who I’ve been following since around the time of her second disruption. @kori.belle is a hopeful mama who I’ve been talking to for over a year now. And of course @bigtoughgirl and @sunshinebottle and @ericksonal (all birthmamas) FaceTimed me on my daughter’s birthday and sang happy birthday.

I love these women so much 🥰 and I really hope they know that 🥰

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bem, isso foi divertido!! #home #neverleft

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