Female friendship in early motherhood can feel thin—even when you’re surrounded by people. Maddie shares why connection changes after kids, what’s helped her build real support (text threads, Marco Polo, evolving community), and permission slips for creating deeper friendships in your season. If you’re starting from scratch, you’ll leave with small, practical next steps.

We took the Amtrak Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Seattle with our 10-week-old — and it became one of our most memorable family trips. In this story episode, Maddie shares the behind-the-scenes moments and what surprised her most about slow travel by train.

The books my daughter has loved from baby through toddler—and a few new additions that help with the emotional chaos of being three.

Is traveling with my child different than it used to be? Yes – in the best way.

Big news – we had our baby, Eden. She was born in late August of 2022 and has changed my life; almost all the cliches about having a child are true. I had no idea what to expect, and for most of my pregnancy, I had trouble reconciling that I was growing a human in my body and that this human would one day be walking around, communicating, and developing her personality that I get to enjoy being part of each day. It’s added another level of purpose and love to my life that I didn’t know was possible.

Just when we think that we’ve had enough change for a time, and we start getting a bit comfortable, we just dive right into creating something new: WE’RE HAVING A BABY GIRL! I’m halfway through this pregnancy and it has gone by so fast and has been filled with many differences between what I was expecting vs. reality...

While darkness can have a psychologically negative effect, light, in contrast, has a psychologically positive effect. We need light to survive. I’ve realized that not only physical light in our lives is needed, but also the light that comes through faith, hope, love/charity, and – perhaps above all – gratitude.

In a very unexpected turn of events, we have moved… back to Los Angeles. Not only did we move back to Los Angeles, but we are living literally a mile from the house I grew up in, in Redondo Beach.

If you had told me six months ago that we would be here, I would have said you’re crazy. But now I just know we’re crazy.