My husband and I moved to our current residence when I was 4 months pregnant. This was a new place where we had no family and certainly no friends. While my husband had his work to make new friends, I didn’t. I was about to have a child and

For me, the opportunity to make connections in the community came when I had my son baptized. There were preparation classes my husband and I had to attend. Through the whole process, we made ourselves known to the community. But after the baptism, everything was quiet again, until I got a call from a church member asking me if I wanted to help out teaching a cathecism class for 3rd graders. After much deliberation and thought, I agreed. Not only did I get to meet wonderful people, my son did so as well. Because he had to come with me, he met a lot of people in the church nursery.

During a spring church picnic, I was greeted by many people, a lot of whom I didn’t recognize though apparently all of them knew Matthew because they all asked about him (at the time, Matthew was busy running around and his dad was busy chasing after him). I was trully amazed by this. My husband and I have moved 6 times in the last 8 years which spanned 3 states, so I had not even thought about what it would be like to have ties to the community. But here was our little family doing just that. It was wonderful.

I have met some moms in the same boat as I was…moved when pregnant and are now stay at home moms struggling to make friends. It isn’t easy. So my advice is to volunteer in the community. It doesn’t have to be with a place of worship, it can be with organizations which tackle issues you feel strongly about.

The wonderful thing about volunteering, is that you’re in charge of your time. You choose when you will be able to help out and when you would rather just do other things at home. Also, you’re volunteering for a cause so you already have something in common with the people you meet. It is a wonderful way to meet friends for you and your child!