I have had a calling. I could feel the intensity of this calling. I just wasn’t sure where it was leading me. So I was lost and confused. I thought maybe it meant this or that. I attempted different pathways. Then as I was sitting in church yesterday, the Pastor told us that God has one plan for us. We need to just pray what God wants us to do instead of praying to God to help us do what we want. I knew this was my answer to finding peace. Honestly it was an inner battle because I just knew I was meant to do something great.

I will admit, I’m not religious. I do believe and believing more and more. But that is another story. I know that through prayer, I can really find the answer. I have always known that I had a calling but I always wondered how I would know what that calling was. I wasn’t expecting a letter from someone with a plan. I wasn’t expecting a phone call. I knew that someone would be introduced to me and I would know they were here to be my mentor. This week I didn’t find just one mentor. I found a few through Twitter. They helped me understand some things that I really wanted to learn about. Then yesterday I was sitting on my computer talking on Twitter when it hit me.

• I want to help people.
• I love breastfeeding and want to share that love with others.
• When family and friends have questions regarding breastfeeding, they usually come to me.

I knew at that point that my calling in life is to help moms breastfeed. I don’t want to push my views on anyone but I know a lot of moms fail at breastfeeding due to lack of support and knowledge. I know because I was one of them. Obviously other women stop breastfeeding for a variety of reasons and I’m not here to change their minds. I think that it will only be frustrating to try to fight a battle that way. When I was breastfeeding my first child, I was young. I listened to others when they told me that she wasn’t thriving and needed more than what I could give her. So at 3 months I quit nursing. I felt beat down. The sad thing was that I didn’t trust my own instincts and I didn’t trust my doctors. I was told that because she was eating constantly that she needed a pacifier. That was the beginning of my breastfeeding downfall. I had to quit nursing my second daughter because I was going back to work and school. Between the two, I was unable to pump. When I was pregnant with my third, I was armed with the best weapon of all, knowledge! I proceeded to breastfeed for 18 months. At that time, I discovered that my kids reacted differently to formula. I didn’t know it at the time but the tummy problems my oldest had was due to formula and milk. All my kids have had an allergy that they didn’t outgrow til 18-24 months. I have successfully breastfed 2 more children til 18 months. 

My goal is to start a lacation program at UCSD in January to be a lactation educator counselor. I will complete that in March. Then I will work on the second part of their program, lactation consultant. I want to be ready to take the IBLCE exam in 2012. I will answer my calling no matter how tough the road is! The best part is that my husband never said anything but “sounds good to me.” Showing me his full support!