Held Together: How I Ended Up Here
The Life I Didn't See Coming
A little about me...
Hi, I’m Katie.
I’m a newly 39-year-old woman trying to figure out my new normal as a stay-at-home mom of two, while renovating a 105-year-old house in my hometown alongside my husband.
But let’s back up a bit.
In 2013, after ending a five-year relationship with my college boyfriend, I moved to Chicago. I spent the next decade there working in public education, enjoying my twenties and early thirties, and quietly assuming I was destined to be the cool aunt rather than a mom.
Then came COVID.
At 33, I decided to freeze my eggs because I didn’t want my age to be the reason I couldn’t create the life I wanted. Six weeks later, I went on a first date in Lincoln Park during the height of the pandemic. We sat six feet apart on separate blankets, trying to get to know each other while the world felt completely upside down. That man is now my husband.
Two years to the day after our first date, we were married.
Life has moved at full speed ever since. Not long after, we left the city and moved to Elmhurst.
Eleven months after our wedding, we welcomed our daughter. She arrived unexpectedly at 32 weeks and spent 40 days in the NICU before finally coming home.
During that season, I was a working mom who genuinely loved her job, but I was also deeply unhappy. I found myself pouring my energy into advocating for and caring about other people’s children all day, while feeling like I had so little left for my own. The guilt and resentment were hard to ignore.
So when I became pregnant with our son, now six months old, my husband and I made the decision that I would stay home and not return to the classroom.
A year ago, we moved again—this time back to Columbus, Ohio, where I grew up. We bought a nearly century-old house, dove headfirst into life with two young kids, and are now preparing for an extensive renovation.
These days, my life looks very different than I ever imagined. I’m learning how to be a stay-at-home mom, navigating marriage and motherhood, renovating an old house, and figuring out who I am in this season of life. Some days I feel like I have it all together. Most days I don’t.
And that’s probably why I’m here writing.