Today is St. Patrick’s Day! Easter is in 10 days. And Mother’s Day will be here before we know it. With that in mind, I’m already planning my annual Mother’s Day guest post series, Special Mamas.
In May 2013, I hosted my first Special Mamas series. The series featured guest posts from a variety of moms who experienced unique journeys to and through motherhood. The series went fabulously and I knew immediately I would continue it annually.
Time got away from me in in the spring of 2014, so I skipped Special Mamas and wrote a month-long series titled Motherhood Unraveled instead. It, too, went well, but I always knew I’d return to Special Mamas in 2015.
In May 2015, I went full in and hosted the largest Special Mamas yet. It was an incredible honor to host 13 moms as they shared their unique stories to and through motherhood.
As the host of this month-long series, I can tell you with certainty that it is a high honor to stand beside you as you share your stories with the world. Real life unfolds your mothering stories, you write them down in whatever way works for you, I receive the stories and pretty them up with formatting and photos, then we stand together, sharing the struggles, the joys, the mountains climbed, the valleys endured to get to and through this story called motherhood.
The readers? They LOVE it. They WANT to hear your story. I’ve done this enough to know it’s true.
Motherhood is a journey.
It’s real. It’s important. And it’s holy.
All of us, every one of us, have a unique path to motherhood and a unique journey through motherhood.
We are special mamas.
So here we are. Mother’s Day will be here before we know it! I run the Special Mamas guest post series all of May, which means it’s time to start lining up a group of special mamas who are willing to write about their journey to and/or through motherhood.
In 2013, I personally invited all the special mamas who guest posted.
In 2015, I opened the invitation to anyone who wanted to participate.
This year, I’m mixing it up. Two moms have already accepted a personal invitation, but I’m also extending the invitation to anyone who would like to participate!
Think you might be interested?
Here are the details…
1) You like to write! And maybe you’re good at it too?!
2) You’re willing to share your mothering story publicly in a guest post on my blog, amybethpederson.com.
3) You’re willing to be vulnerable in telling your story. These posts will have the greatest impact if you’re willing to share your journey, but also your thoughts and feelings about the journey. Perhaps you’ve had to be patient. Perhaps your faith has led you through. Perhaps you’ve had to tap into community to help along the way. Perhaps motherhood isn’t anything like you expected. Perhaps you’re frustrated, in grief, or elated beyond belief. I don’t know your story, but we want to hear it.
Listen moms. I need you to hear this. Your story doesn’t need to be perfect or resolved or awesome or incredibly holy and inspiring to be good. Don’t disqualify yourself because you think your story isn’t “good enough.” I want ALL the stories. The easy ones, the hard ones, the inspiring ones, the off-the-wall ones, and everything in-between. I KNOW there are hidden gems out there.
4) Your guest post will need to be between 500-1,200 words in length. I will accept longer submissions up to 2,000 words if your story necessitates, but will not accept submissions shorter than 500 words. Please note, you are responsible for revising and editing your story before sending it to me.
5) I’ll need a minimum of 4-5 photographs from you to include in the blog post, horizontal orientation strongly preferred. More photos are just fine. This blog is big on photos! If I read your story and feel additional photos would be helpful to tell the story, I may ask you to send more.
6) You have plenty of time to write and edit your guest post. All posts will be published on my blog, Divine in the Daily, between May 1st and May 31st, 2016. All posts need to be submitted to me 7-10 days in advance of your assigned date of publication. When you sign up to guest post, I’ll ask whether you prefer to be published early, middle, or late May. I’ll assign a date based on the preference you indicated!
7) Once your story is in my hands, I promise to read it and send you general thoughts and impressions within THREE days. This series requires that I am on top of my game, constantly pulling in content, sorting it, organizing it, and pushing it back out. But I am WHOLLY COMMITTED to honoring your story by reading it and responding in a timely a fashion, even if I’m not able to get to details until closer to publication date. TWO and THREE days PRIOR to publication, I will be in contact with you heavily via email to review details, provide updates, and gather additional information.
8) You don’t have to be a blogger to participate in this series, but bloggers are more than welcome! If you’re a blogger, I will NOT edit your post unless I catch spelling errors. If you are NOT a blogger, I reserve the right to make small edits to your post, with final review by you prior to publication.
9) Let’s just say this…I am open to giveaways and special surprises! If you have any ideas along these lines, please let me know and I am happy to discuss the possibilities.
Last, but not least, you might be a good fit for this series if you are…
- A foster mama
- An adoptive mama
- A mama in the process of adopting
- A foster mama who turned into an adoptive mama
- A mama who’s going through infertility
- A woman who REALLY WANTS TO BE A MAMA, but isn’t yet
- A mama of a child who has special needs of any kind
- A mama who has a mental illness
- A mama of a child who has a mental illness
- A mama of multiples
- A mama with multiple children (6 or more children)
- A mama who has one child (by choice or for other reasons)
- A mama who’s going through a major life transition
- A missionary mama
- A mama whose husband has passed away
- A mama living abroad
- A mama who’s been through divorce
- A teen mama or someone who gave birth as a teen
- A military mama
- A mama whose mother passed away at an early age
- A mama who never had a mother in her life at all
- A mama who was adopted as an infant or child
- A mama who’s single
- A woman who doesn’t plan to have children
- A mama who’s living in poverty
- A grandma who’s raising her grandchildren
- A grandma who’s actively helping raise her grandchildren
- A stepmom
- A mama who’s experienced more than one miscarriage
- A mama who’s experienced stillbirth
- A mama who’s lost a baby or child
- A mama whose child HAS experienced or IS experiencing a significant medical crisis
- A husband who would like to honor his wife’s mothering journey
- A father who would like to honor his daughter’s mothering journey
- A mother who would like to honor her daughter’s mothering journey
- Children (small or all grown up) who would like to honor their mother’s journey
If you don’t see yourself listed above, but think your mothering story is similarly unique, please let me know! We’ll connect and definitely get you in the series if your journey seems to fit.
If you’re unsure and want to get an idea of what the guest posts are like, I strongly encourage you to look through last year’s series. CLICK HERE to connect to Special Mamas 2015, then scroll to the bottom where all 13 posts are listed and linked.
If everything I’ve listed above feels like a match, and you’d like to write a guest post for my “Special Mamas” guest post series in May 2016, please fill out the Survey Monkey form below. It’s just a few questions and shouldn’t take you more than a couple minutes. This is a way to share your name, email and brief summary of who you are without making it public quite yet.
This year, I’ll be featuring a total of 9 moms in the Special Mamas series. I already have 2 mamas committed to sharing. That means, I’m looking for 7 more mamas to share guest posts in May.
Thanks everyone! I can’t wait to see who’ll be sharing this year. I’ll keep an update here on the blog and on Facebook so you know when I’ve reached 9, or if I’m still looking for submissions. In the meantime, if you know anyone who might be interested in sharing their story, please share this post!
