11 Comments
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Katie Blackburn's avatar

Reb, this was a JOY to read! I absolutely love you voice ❤️

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Reb Smyth's avatar

Katie, this is just the best encouragement ever!! Thank you so much for reading and leaving this little note 💕

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Ashley C. Shannon's avatar

As always, lovely words! Thanks for sharing your birth story and thoughts. Birthing has so many conflicting emotions! There are all the things we are "supposed" to feel and then all the things we actually feel but don't realize until we've had a moment in the chaos to think through them! Love how you portrayed that.❤️

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Reb Smyth's avatar

Thank you so much, Ashley! Your encouragement means more than you know 💕 You are so right about the things we are ‘supposed’ to feel. In the past I have definitely gotten way too hung up on what I didn’t feel but thought I ‘should’. It can be so complex!! Glad this resonated even a little 🥰

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Sara Koert's avatar

This was beautiful, Reb! The birth story, the family vaca, the photos 💕 And yay for discovering Amy Wells with you in Sonya’s class—can’t wait to gobble up more of her writing!

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Reb Smyth's avatar

Thank you so much, Sara 💕 I’m currently saving up my pocket money for the Amy Wells Ordinary Time book! Sonya’s class is the class that keeps on giving. Although I must confess I still haven’t attempted my own lyrical essay yet 🤦🏼‍♀️

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Megan Hogg's avatar

I'm proud of you, too! Can't wait to hear more about your vacation!

*starts dreaming up a trip to France*

Also this line GOT ME: "and my bigger guy for jumping hurdles invisible to others" <3

I just adore your writing my friend. Needed this reminder of how amazing it is to live in a world with such "textbook" miracles.

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Reb Smyth's avatar

I am actually going to send you the deets to the campsite we stayed in because it was SO AFFORDABLE and perfect for a flock of boys. Add France to your Ireland trip 😉

Thank you for this friend 💕 It’s the invisible hurdles that get me too! 😭

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Joy Nicholas's avatar

Lovely, Reb! I relate to the feeling of wanting so badly to “textbook” for a time! I had my first a month before I turned 21. Plus, my whole growing up with a very complicated answer to the question “Where are you from?” It all made me definitely crave being “normal,” but then having these same kinds of thoughts in a different context. So glad you had a wonderful, restorative holiday!

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Reb Smyth's avatar

Oh Joy, thank you for this. You really get the complex identity feels on a whole other level!! I still feel perpetually ‘in-between’—my friends are starting to have babies too but I also have a foot in the big kid world and that takes up way more emotional space than I anticipated. But I’m realising we all feel a little in-between in different ways.

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Kimberly Knowle - Zeller's avatar

This was a delight to read!! Also dreaming of a vacation to France with my crew! The last time I was in France, I was 25 and spent a few days in Paris and then a week in Taize!

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