Kristin Bennett

One year ago, I was a 27 year old pregnant newlywed working as a Visual Design for a SaaS company where I’d been working for close to two years. I had a 3yo daughter who was just starting at a new school near my husbands house (which was almost done being renovated) where I looked forward to being able to walk her to school with the new baby the following Spring.My husband had been contracting at a large well known local company doing very well.

Then I think it was either in September or October..all our contractors at the company I worked for got cut. It was a surprise to most of us, we had a lot of longtime fabulous contractors at the time. Soon after was the first layoff, this one was a shocker, we lost about 30 people, and in a company with less than 200 employees, this was a big hit.

My belly started to show soon after this, and when my husbands contracts dried up, my job became ever more important, I was the one providing health insurance to the family and still bringing in a paycheck. My husband started working with an MLM, and I became curious about that as well and started one as well around the beginning of 2009, though barely doing it at all because I was very pregnant and work was wearing me out, as was the commute taking my daughter across town to daycare, renovations were put on hold and so we were still living out of my apartment from before our wedding.

Next was a layoff of 2 corporate employees from my company, two that were considered the best by many and so this was VERY disconcerting. It was not a huge surprise when on February 27th, about a month before my due date, that along with about 30 other employees, I was handed my papers and asked to leave.

Fortunately this is about the time the COBRA package was reduced (thank you Obama!) this meant I was able to afford to keep our insurance which is/was about $375/mo.

A month and a half later, I had my baby girl who we named Hazel. I had her at home along with my husband, mother, mother in law, daughter, 2 midwives and a wonderful doula. It was an amazing experience.

In the meantime my husband has been working on putting together a company, which I should be able to announce soon in another post.

I had been trying to find work, though I do have a baby with me, as I can not afford to put her in daycare wi/out a job. This definitely hinders the job search. Then June was passing…and I started losing feeling and strength in my right leg and arm.

My MS was flaring up. Yes, I am a mother with MS. I started all of the appointments at this point, to the Neuro, the MRI place, the physical therapy, psychology appointments, the steroid treatments via IV in the hospital for five days, the support group meetings and so on. Soon the talks about what drugs I should be getting on soon, if I should keep nursing etc. were piling up. Also through the NMSS and another group I’m a part of for young people with MS I was approached to help start a local Moms with MS group.

I had already been ‘organizing’,though not very actively, another local moms group, unrelated to MS so I jumped at this opportunity!

While setting up the local one through meetup.com I managed to discover that … omg … MomsWithMS.com was NOT registered!!

Skip ahead to today. I am now the founder of the MomsWithMS.com website which currently is a community for Mothers who have been diagnosed with MS to come and share their stories, support each other, and compare notes about the joys and sorrows we experience on our mothering with MS journey. We currently have 99 members and I’m expecting we’ll probably get our 100th member very soon.

We’ll be out of the apartment and into the house by October 1, just need the plumbing, packing, and moving done. Baby Hazel will be 5 months old tomorrow and is a big, smart, beautiful baby who just started saying “Ma ma”, she’s on me as I type this.

I’m taking all these ‘hard times’ as a blessing, yes I’m still broke as heck but working on figuring out how to change that while also growing this community of moms who like myself find great comfort in knowing there are others out there who are going through the same thing and thriving.

If you know any Moms with MS who might be looking for a place they can talk to people who understand, or has questions about anything they have heard. Let them know we exist. Many of our moms are newly diagnosed and are already finding us through google search when looking for information for mothers about MS.

We launched on July 1, 2009. My next milestone is making a public portion of the site where anyone can come and get information about MS and how it relates to families as well as finding resources, though they can be hard to find, they are out there.

I have been taking a class through the Washington Business Center (used to be Women’s Business Center) it is called “Launch and Grow your ” and while it’s been interesting I have been flip flopping faster than any political candidate ever regarding ‘which’ business I want to focus/work on. In my mind I’m thinking about the book writing, community building, all the MLM’s I’m involved in, my volunteer roles and sooo much more, how can I focus on one?? Anyway, now that it is ending next week which is when I need to present a business plan, I have decided where I need to focus though in what regards I’m still not sure, though I know where I’m leaning. I think that what I have spent time on really shows my passions and what I’m most likely to thrive doing and that is working with Moms with MS.

I launched the community on July 1 this year after suffering my first bad flare-up since my diagnosis in 2001. I’ve watched it grow like crazy, we’re now over 90 members and it’s barely been 2 months and we are not yet listed in or supplied brochures at any NMSS locations or on their site aside from links on their facebook page. One member told me she found the site through google even which is fabulous, means we’re showing up in people’s searches when they are looking for what we provide.

At this point though we are ‘only’ a community. I have it being run through a (wonderful) ning platform which is great as a community but so much more is needed for this site!! I want to supply moms with information, help them promote what they are doing, feature people, have specialists contribute regarding cutting edge information that affects us MoMS and so forth. So as I told my husband a few minutes ago…I need to get started with a mindmap because for this topic my brain is exploding with ideas and even better, I’m getting loads of support and encouragement from anyone I talk to about this, whether they are affected/in the field or not.

Time to get started on that business plan…after the mindmap and find focus within this focus of course.

Right now I am getting an IV of steroids. It is Day 4 which means tomorrow is my last day of this treatment, a taper of prednisone starts after that which is pills, done with IV’s for a while after that.

I have been thinking a lot about what is happening and why. I believe it all is happening for a combination of reasons. Many stemming from past and present stress. Also it is building my reserve of stories to be told and lessons to be learned. I will be a very wise woman someday.

I am also taking as ment steps as possible to avoid this in the future. I am working my way back to following the swank diet because I did well and felt bettet when following a low fat diet in the past anyway, I also started the Arbonne Hybrid supplement program which I have known many people to have wonderful health and energy benefits from.

I am walking every day, usually with the stroller now which helps with my balance as a walker would. Geoff helps me too letting me hold his pocket for support.

Emotionally I am I think taking the most extreme steps. I will be going to Klemmer as Geoff did starting sometime in June or August. I will be seeing a neuropsych next week to discuss all i’m doing and are what kind of tips and recommendations she has. My friend recently became certified in hypnotherapy as well and we sill do what we can with that.

I feel the most driven to get better to care for my girls. Yesterday Kenzie my 3yo was in tears when they dropped me off at the hospital. I don’t want her to be scared like that. I want to be the strong mom that both of them deserve and to run and play with them again and always. Kenzie hasn’t been able to really play with me for a year or so what with the pregnancy limiting my rough housing capabilities, then being busy with baby and now with the MS she just wants her mommy back. I want the same.