When I was 37 I became pregnant for the first time, unfortunately this pregnancy ended in miscarriage, but I then went on to give birth to a gorgeous baby boy. I had been a nurse for almost 20 years had worked with children as well as having babies in the family, but absolutely nothing prepared me for the sheer exhaustion, fear and stress of having an unhappy colicky baby! With little support from family and friends (my Mum had died many years ago and my Husband’s mum was in her late 70`s) I spent most of the first year as a gibbering wreck, as described by an old friend). I did go back to work part time but when finances allowed, and we found we couldn't have more children, I gave up work to stay at home and be a full time Mum. I really enjoyed this time at home and became involved in helping to run the church Toddler group 3 mornings a week.

When my little boy was getting ready to start school about a year ago, I began to seek the Lord about what I should do as although we were just scraping by financially it had been very difficult. A friend in America had a hired a "Doula" after having her baby as she, like myself, had very little family support. Her experience was so different to mine, she was confident and self assured in her mothering skills. Her Doula had come alongside her and given help and reassurance, as well as practical support.

I began to research this and booked myself into a course on Doulaing. I was continuing to seek the Lord and it felt really right, though each step was a battle as I had lost a lot of my confidence and self esteem and going away for a residential course took every ounce of faith and prayer support from friends. Whilst working in the toddler groups I had obviously talked to lots of new Mums, the majority of whom had no confidence in their mothering skills and really didn't enjoy motherhood and these were the stay at home Mums!

Preparations were going quite well in my new business, though I had yet to have a client, when in February of this year I attended a Life Success conference. In all honesty I was feeling a bit fed up and thinking about giving the whole Doula thing in to go back to nursing. I didn't really think the day was going to be very relevant for me - how wrong I was - talk about a time and a place! At one point during the day we were asked to recognise our dream and write it down, this is what I wrote:
My dream is to see woman fully restored to their position of a nurturing mother, that their lives would be focused on their families and that they would be enabled in this by having spiritual, emotional and practical support.

I believe that it was by actually writing my dream down that I had finally handed it over to the Lord completely. I came away from the day feeling totally drained but my passion for my dream had been reignited. It is absolutely amazing but within 2 weeks I had my first client booking!! Since then things have really taken off and I am now fully booked until September. If you would of asked me 2 years ago if I would ever have my own business it would of been a very firm NO, but God has different plans!! Thanks to Jenny and Maria`s obedience in Life Success they are encouraging us to follow the dreams God has put in our hearts. They are truly inspirational as they share what the Lord has done in their lives.