Finding Your Groove as a Late-in-Life Mom

I met up with a friend at a conference this past weekend. She is a sleep-deprived, forty-something mommy of a three-month-old baby boy and a ten- year-old daughter.

"I want you to tell me how to get my groove back," she told me.

I didn't say anything then because I don't believe in challenging conversations with an exhausted woman.

But here's what I would have said:

"Whatever groove you get back isn't going to be the one you had before you became a Mommy-come-lately!"

Successfully mothering my late-in-life child, Christa, required letting go of life as I knew it. Only then could I fully embrace my daughter--and all the changes she brought to my life.

I'll admit, letting go wasn't easy. I liked what my life looked like B.C. (Before Christa.) Some of the dreams I'd set aside while my first three children were growing up were finally coming true. Truth be told, I resented the about-face my life took when I had a baby at forty-one.

But I'm almost six years into life as a Mommy-come-lately--and I love my life now as much as I loved my life before. It's a whole new groove--and I wouldn't want it any other way.