Mom's Got Money

CHAPTER 9Finances in Your Relationships

The smell of coffee was intimately familiar as I settled into a seat in the corner of my local coffee shop. I took out my computer and held my fingers over the keys, a stance I'd been in hundreds of times over many years. But, I didn't quite feel like myself that day. In fact, I hadn't felt like myself in months, ever since my twins were born. After the babies spent time in the NICU, we moved across the country away from family. I'd been in pure survival mode trying to care for them, keep my business running, and support my husband as he started his clinical rotations at the hospital.

I was trying to get back to who I was, though, and reaching for what was familiar. The laptop. The coffee. The keyboard I knew so well with the “a” slightly rubbed off from hitting it a couple million times while writing.

I was proud of myself for getting out of the house that day. Before then, leaving my twins felt odd—reckless even. They were so tiny, and I, as their mom, felt like I should be the one to be there for them always. But, I knew in order to get back to being me, I had to lean into the truest part of me, which was writing. I had to get back somehow to who I was before, so that my kids could get to know the real me, the one with ideas and words and passions.

Plus, I left them in the caring hands of my husband, who was a third‐year medical school student at the time. I knew he was the best person to watch them, while I stepped away for just an ...