Danielle - {Winter 2016}

I met up to talk with Danielle about life in a noisy coffee shop. She was thirty three weeks pregnant and while she would probably be the first to deny it, she was radiant and bursting with that mama glow. The thing I loved most about our time together is that it was sprinkled with frequent loud giggles as she recalled fun moments in her past, talked about her struggles with a sense of humor only a mom of toddlers can understand, and coyly admitted to myself (and all of you) that she is a self professed “big dork.” Our conversation began with talk of her small town beginnings and how she ended up a mom of three boys…
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“I grew in a small town, Socorro. I moved away when I graduated high school, moved back for a few years and then ended up in Albuquerque. So I feel like Socorro is kind of home, but it’s also not something I really claim!" She laughs.

"I have an older brother who is like the exact opposite of me, personality wise. He’s like very serious and logical and a super genius who is a dentist and way too smart for his own good...but I still love him!" She reassures me.

"I moved to Albuquerque close to fifteen years ago, and this is where I met my now husband, JJ. We met through mutual friends at a Saint Patrick’s Day party and JJ made a complete fool of himself, I’ll spare you the details because he has since totally redeemed himself!

I was going to CNM when we met, which was the third college I had gone to and was on roughly my fifth major. I just really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Everything I did, I really loved at the time, but I couldn’t commit. I just would take a required class and then fall in love with a subject and then decide that was what I wanted…until I changed my mind again.”

“JJ and I have been married for nine years. It took us six years to have one baby, which is a long, long, long time to wait to become parents. We had finally gotten to the point where we just assumed we were not going to have kids. We had tried and tried and there was no real reason it wasn’t happening. It just wasn’t happening for us. We had also tried to adopt and it was a long drawn out process that lasted two years and just hadn't worked out. So we had just sort of given up on the idea of expanding our family and had a serious conversation where we looked each other in the eyes and said “we like where our life is going, we like what God has given us, we are content.” And when we had that conversation, little did we know I was actually six weeks pregnant. So we had our son Rees, and when he was about one, we started considering looking into adoption again. We had barely even dipped our toes in the water and sent in an application because we were interested in one little boy who’s file wasn't even available yet. They weren’t supposed to call us or inquire about any kids, but they did. They called about a different little boy and eleven months later, we brought our son David home from China. And if that’s not crazy enough, I found out while we were in China that I was pregnant again!

So it took us six years to become parents, and in the last three years, we have been blessed with three sons!”

(Danielle was pregnant when we interviewed and shot her photos, but has just recently welcomed her third son, Joshua, to the world!)
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What are you passionate about? What are you looking forward to?

“Too much! I’m one of those people who wants to do everything and be everything and try everything all at once. At some point I should probably focus, right? It’s hard because right now i’m sort of just in the trenches of motherhood. Babies and diapers and potty training rule my life currently.
I love to write, I long ago started writing a book. It’s still in my brain and the story is still a work in progress. I think of the people in the story often, but I just really don’t have the time to sit and write in the current state I am in! Really the only thing I’ve got time to write is a grocery list, and that doesn't mean I will actually remember to go buy the groceries!

Adoption is still on my brain, too. I’m just waiting to get a grasp on three kids before we really delve into that though!
So much of my thoughts and efforts right now go into planning and thinking about my sons and their futures, that I have kind of pushed my future plans aside. Not in a bad way, just in a 'they can wait a while' way.”

What are five things you want the Simply Sisterhood community to know about you?

1. I’m really introverted. I sometimes feel like because I’m really overwhelmed at parties, that I can come across as awkward or snobby to people who don’t know me. I’m really not, my brain is just overloaded!

2. I feel really awkward when people act like adopting is some sort of heroic thing that we’ve done. It’s really not. We didn’t adopt because we are these super hero people, we adopted because our son was on the other side of the world. It’s one of those things that gets built up and glorified to where people will say things like “I could never adopt because i’m just not a good enough person,” and I just can't relate to that idea. I’m not a perfect parent. I struggle to love my children in the ways that they need. I would struggle with those things whether we had adopted or not. In reality, JJ and I are kind of just weird dorks who HAPPEN to have a child from China!

3. On that note, I am obsessed with Star Trek. I could watch any episode of any Star Trek show, and within two minutes of the show starting, I would know the entire plot because I’ve seen every episode a ton of times. JJ and I watch Star Trek together while we do dishes and chores around the house and it’s kind of “our thing”.

4. I don’t own any hairstyling tools. I don’t even own a hair dryer. I’m clueless as to what most of those things even do!

5. I LOVE being a boy mom. It is the greatest thing ever. I aways thought that I wanted girls, but having sons is so wonderful. I love that I get to raise gentlemen, I love that little boys can turn anything into a vehicle, and I love the adventures I get to take with my boys!

Humble, genuine and beautiful, Danielle is truly a gift to spend time with - and I don’t say that lightly. She is quirky and so quick to poke fun at herself, but also really thoughtful and has such a big heart for others. It was such an honor to get to capture her during her pregnancy and hear so many things that she said about motherhood that I FEEL deep down in my soul.
Welcome to the sisterhood, Danielle!
​You are amazing.

{All photos are property of Simply Sisterhood and Gonzalez Guillen Photo. 
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