Motherhood is one of the greatest joys in my life, but it took me a little while to get used to it.
When Adam and I were first married, we had lots of plans for the first few years of marriage. We went on the Amazing Race and then soon after we started working on my Unstoppable documentary.
Then we found out I was pregnant about six months later. It was a surprise to say the least! Adam and I were like, “wow, ok that really wasn’t what we were planning on”. I guess we had just expected to have more time for ourselves to grow as a couple before having kids.
At first, this really caught me off-guard and scared me a little bit.
I had always wanted to be a mom, but I didn’t expect to be one at that point in my life. I had a lot of surf dreams I still wanted to accomplish. I also had a few one-armed fears: how was I going to change the baby’s diaper or support his head when I picked him up?
As I was processing the change that was coming, I was praying for understanding, peace, and guidance. Adam and I chose to roll with the new life changes as best as possible. We just kept doing what we were doing – surfing and filming Unstoppable! I surfed during pregnancy up until eight months and I prioritized getting back into shape as soon as possible after Tobias was born. I always knew that after I had kids I would keep surfing and get back out there pushing again.
All my training paid off. A couple months after I had Tobias, I got a great result as a wildcard in the Fiji Pro which was so awesome. I also had a lot of fun traveling all around the world to film my surfing for Unstoppable. I surfed Jaws and some other insane waves during this time period.
Adam was super supportive to all that I was doing with surfing so we ended up just bringing baby Tobias along to everything! We learned how to be parents in the midst of surf competitions and traveling the world.
Fast forward to today and we have three boys and a fourth child on the way. I’m still professionally surfing, speaking and running a business at the same time (with the help of Adam, of course!).
I’ve had to adapt to so many things as a parent, but God is helping me overcome all the uncertainties I originally had about motherhood.
I’m so glad He made me a mom when He did! I think motherhood is one of the things I love most in life and sharing the parenting role with Adam has been so amazing. We’ve found that the timing of having children couldn’t have been better. The process of bringing a life into the world brought us closer in so many ways. It was selfish to think about how having a child would throw off our plans. God’s timing was perfect and such a blessing.
Adam and I teamwork everything we do. Our boys are with us all the time and they are learning with us and from us. It’s been really fun to just be a family unit and do everything together. I could be traveling a lot by myself, but I choose not to. We bring the boys on all our travels and adventures just like we did when Tobias was a baby. We like to explore life together!
I still feel like l have so much more to learn in the realm of being a mom. However, I’m learning every day with God, Adam and my boys to help guide me. It’s been so much fun and I’m stoked for the journey to get more crazy and beautiful as a new child enters the world in a couple weeks!
