Today officially marks ONE YEAR of Mommy’s Mermaid. I want to start by thanking each and every one of you that are reading this now, and anyone that has ever stopped in to see what we are up too. Without you, we would not still be here.

I had this idea for a while before starting it and one night decided just to jump in head first. I knew absolutely nothing about the blogging world. I had no idea how to start, how to get eyes on my writing or how to share our journey. I am still learning but have found a few avenues to help gain publicity and for that, I am ever so grateful.

I knew if it was going to flop I would know fairly quickly. I remember my first month having nearly 500 people stop in to visit and I was floored. I decided to set a personal goal of roughly 10,000 visitors by our Birthday. If I hit that number, or anything even close to it,  I would know my time and energy would somehow be validated. Well, guess what? We hit it!

The past year has taught me so much. I think of a quote by C.S. Lewis…

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different.”

It’s so true, I felt nothing change but as I look back over the past year it’s all so different. Mommy’s Mermaid re-sparked my desire to write. It went from an idea on the chalkboard in my kitchen to a part of our family. As long as I can remember I loved to write. As a school age child I wrote a Children’s book, in Junior High I started writing poetry, High School I did a lot of free writing, had a small gig with a local newspaper and journaling; and as a young adult I had this burning desire to tackle a book. Life happened, I went through a lot personally as a young adult. I experienced a massive amount of death, had some pretty terrible things happen to me which I will choose not to delve into and I did not deal well with any of it, I spiraled a bit and spent years not caring about much of anything. To put it bluntly, I was a hot mess. I needed that though, I needed to stumble to show myself I could prevail. It might not make sense to you but I am the type of person that loves with everything I have. I might not say it on a daily basis or shout it from the rooftop but I feel it. Everything I experienced left me broken and empty. I spent a few years repairing myself and some of the damage I had caused and more recently learned to let go of some of that grief. I found my passion again through Mommy’s Mermaid.

This past year as led me to some pretty amazing acquaintances and friendships. I look forward to the day so may of us get to meet in person. Multiple local businesses have sent me products and encouraged me to continue our journey and Mermaid herself has become aware of her “scales” and her “computer self” and loves to help Mommy create and try new “special soaps” or products.

My original plan was to write about what we knew, Linear Epidermal Nevus, but over time I realized that there are so many different forms of nevus that many of us would never know existed without the internet to connect us all. There are so many things we can do together to help change the face of this disease. Number one, awareness. The psychological effects from owning a nevus alone can be devastating. For those challenged with syndromes and physical complications it can be life altering and life threatening. We have an opportunity to raise money for those families needing to pay for medical expenses, time off work and trials. We can help support research to hopefully one day, find a cure, be it for those who develop cancer or simply for cosmetic purposes to decrease mental health issues. Over this past year I have realized that Mermaid’s disease is next to nothing in comparison to others, but the existence of it is what started this all.

I have learned that simply writing about the “facts” – what the diseases are, the potential complications, testing involved etc. is not so captivating. To those with the disease it’s helpful but those without need a different connection to help understand where we are coming from. Writing about our daily experiences with others, sharing stories of other nevus owners and putting bits in about our personal life gains the most interest. So much of this disease is navigating the day to day changes, one day can be unbearable while another you can completely forget it exists. Where you may not focus on the physical challenges daily, we monitor the emotional challenges non-stop. Being able to connect with our readers on a multitude of levels is imperative, even if that leaves us vulnerable at times. Again, I thank you for your interest in our story.

Over the past year we have learned about and gone through the biopsy process, vision concerns, eye testing, participated in research, met fellow nevus owners in person, shared trials and experimented with some heavy products, shared other peoples stories, raised some money for a few families and opened up our lives very publically. Through all of that, my favorite moments are still the random messages thanking us for speaking so openly, people reaching out with their stories and those just wanting to talk. Being the parent of a Nevus owner sometimes leaves us feeling helpless so the fact that ANYONE would choose me to reach out to just to talk is humbling.

I have a pretty drastic idea for a big change coming to Mommy’s Mermaid over the next couple of months and if I choose to take the plunge I hope you all come with me, until then, I will continue plugging away and bringing you as interesting of material as my brain can conjure up; and who knows, maybe this will be the year I finish a book!

We are eternally grateful for all your support.

Thanks for walking with us today,

Mermaid’s Mommy