It's new to me!

Ever since news about my pregnancy spread 2 months ago, advice and "gifts" from friends and family have been trickling in. One friend in particular brought bags of clothes (nicely cleaned and folded too) to church several Sundays in a row, which is especially touching considering that she has two young children at home and not much time to do anything else, let alone prepare these "care packages" for me.

While I'm grateful for all of the books, baby goods, and maternity clothes that friends have passed on, to be honest, it was daunting initially to figure what to do with all of these things. Then one afternoon, tired of keeping everything in bags and boxes, I decided to create a little "mommy" corner in our walk-in closet.

Unlike some people, I never got into the habit of keeping items of different sizes, even though I also had "fat" and "skinny" clothes. Hence, it was weird to see this new wardrobe of various sizes and styles. And even though I was very glad for all of the new clothes (especially since maternity fashion can be quite expensive), for a while, I hardly touched anything.

At first, I thought that it might be because subconsciously, I didn't want to acknowledge that my body was changing and now needed larger sizes. Later, however, I realized that it was more because I was having trouble figuring out how to wear things that someone else had chosen for their taste and needs. Day after day, I'd put on a shirt or a dress, only to take it off and change back into my own clothes because the reflections in the mirror that looked back at me seemed so oddly unrecognizable.

So despite having a sizable collection of maternity wear, I still wore non-maternity clothes for a while and ended up buying a few items - far more than I had expected to.

I'm happy to say though, that recently, I'm beginning to experiment with mixing the hand-me-downs with my own wardrobe. For example, one Sunday, I wore a wide belt (over my tummy and below my rib cage) with my friend's dress (turning it into an empire dress) and adapting it into a look that was more my usual style. Even though it was a small change, the dress looked so different that in fact, my friend hardly recognize her own clothes!

It will probably take me a while to figure out how to wear everything but I'm glad that it looks like I'm going to be able to make good use of the borrowed clothes.

Thanks again, friends, for showing me how to look beautiful with a changing body and for sharing your closets so generously. I hope that the pieces I'm adding to our mommy collection will help to make someone else happy someday too.