Cheers!🍾
Celebrating National Volunteer Week
Oops! My previous email had the wrong pics in our update: That’ll teach me to post articles in my car between hospital appointments while Nina naps! 🤦🏽♀️
Soooo pleased to be posting about something very happy, and much lighter than my last few 😅 And leaning into one of the special lights in mine and Nina’s life... LAURA 🥰
Last week was National Volunteers week (I’m a bit late posting this 🙈 (we’ve had two hospital escapades already this week and it’s only Wednesday!) so me and Laura took Nina on her first Ever Dinnertime outing to celebrate! Incidentally my first dinnertime outing since she was born 🤯
It was lovely, and stressful, and a bit nerve-wracking, and above all... FUN!
Laura is mine and Nina’s Home-Start Volunteer and I absolutely do not talk about her enough ❤️
In January2025 I had moved out of Nina’s dad’s house, and bravely done the impossible...I had closed my door to him, and the unstable dependence/fear/harm cycle that he brought into our lives. I was freshly alone, with a baby in her own agony, I was struggling so deeply I was terrified.
And then the Home-start Volunteer organisation came to see me, and just...offered to help. No politics, no “you could call this number, try this avenue, we can do this but we can’t do that”, just help, a lifeline.
A few weeks later Laura came into our lives: Laura volunteers her time, every single week, for no financial recompense (I repeat that because recently a friend, in baffled amazement, said “but she gets reimbursed?! You mean she does it totally for free?! Every week?!)
Yep, thats the deal: Laura helps however we need at home, she chats and shares her lovely life stories with me, and she connects with me over the wins and woes of mine, and come rain or shine, no matter what - she is there 😌 every Wednesday, for 2 hours, without fail, for 18 months now ✨️
It’s a special kind of thing having a person in your life who will never let you down, who’ll make plans, keep them, show up, not because their obligated, or paid to, someone who’s choosing to be there. And as I write this I’m seeing now, how explicitly this opposes the (non)presence of Nina’s father, who removed himself step by step from his role as Nina’s co-carer and co-parent, always choosing less, always choosing Not her in small ways, step by step, each one a small heartbreak for me. And Now, writing THAT, I can see how specific the Healing is that Laura provides by offering her time freely, every week - she chooses us, and it’s restored so much of what was broken before 💔
Nina dotes on her, and so do I, and people who volunteer are wonders, our Laura is a Wonder and we love her, we celebrate her quietly every week, but this (last) week, feels like a great time to share that celebration with others. So here’s to Laura, and here’s to the safety she’s helped me find, the healing she’s brought me and Nina, and here’s to the people that choose you 🍾
*If this has made you interested in Home-Start, here’s a link to this wonderful organisation: https://www.home-start.org.uk/pages/category/how-to-volunteer
With Love x
