Intro...

Greetings!

I'm Danie. I was pregnant for the first time at 19, I gave birth for the first time at 23, and now I'm 32 and the very proud Mommy to 8-year-old Aidan. After the boy was born, I started a business that dispensed support and supplies to pregnant and nursing moms. I later became a Certified Childbirth Educator, to better serve women. The business grew incredibly, possibly because it was the early days of business on the 'net and we were among the first. After a few years, I was pretty much "Mom" all the time, to everyone in the world, so I sold the business (which was like another child) and moved on.

For a time, I volunteered as a birth educator in a home for pregnant teens. That didn't last long, however, because absolutely none of the young women who lived there were at all supported or encouraged if they chose to raise their children. It was an adoption-only sort of a place. I found that terribly distressing -- not because I'm against adoption or something, but because I got the distinct impression that some of these young women would have chosen otherwise, had they been given support. In my position, I was not allowed to even offer that sort of support.

I was brought back to this site because of Alli. I knew her briefly online years ago, when I prided myself on being part of a huge online community of mothers. Back then, it seemed like every mother online knew every other. The 'net sure seems bigger now.

I'm here to provide support in any way that I can.

-D