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I once heard someone say, "There's no one lonelier than a new mom." Then I lived it. After my husband, David, and I pinched pennies for four years so I could stay home, our first daughter was born. It should have been my "happily ever after," but four months later, I found myself lonely, isolated, uncertain of my parenting ability, and starved for adult companionship. Don't get me wrong. I loved Haley, loved David, and felt blessed to be able to stay home and take care of them. But nothing, not David's encouragement, not my mountain of parenting books, not the advice from my older sisters, not lunch and phone calls with the gang back at the office, could alleviate my overwhelming feelings of isolation and insecurity. I began praying for a way to stay home with Haley without feeling so alone. My prayers were answered the day a friend told me about The Parenting Center, a local nonprofit group providing moms with education, support, and—most importantly for me—a place to hang out and meet other moms.

The next day when the doors opened, I was there. Walking into the center, I felt shy for the first time in years. In my sales job I was confident and assertive. As a mom I felt incompetent and inadequate. Then we started talking. We talked about our deliveries, our recoveries, our sleepless nights, breastfeeding problems, even our mothers-in-law. We laughed about finally getting the baby to sleep only to jump up a dozen times to check her breathing, about putting a drop of baby shampoo in our own eye to make sure it was really tear-free, about dozing off in traffic jams because we were so sleep deprived. When I showed them how I'd only manicured one hand before Haley started crying and I never got back to the other one, another mom rolled up her pants to show us how she'd only shaved one leg. I wasn't alone any more. As much as Haley depended on me, I began to depend on my new mom friends for reassurance, encouragement, and support.

In ancient times when warriors fought with bow and arrow, they found the best way to strengthen their bow was to "unstring" it each night and let it relax so it would be stronger the next morning. It's the same with moms. "Nothing in life is more consuming than being a mom," explains Leslie Parrott, author of If Ever You Needed a Friend, It's Now (Zondervan).

"[Mothering] depletes, expends, and burns up more time and energy than any other human activity, often leaving a mom's life out of balance. But friends, perhaps more than anything else, have a way of balancing the scales. Nobody can empathize with being a mom like another mother," Parrott continues. "The sheer understanding that comes from being around women who know what your life is like provides unspeakable comfort and support."

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