22 years ago, I was nine months pregnant and terrified.

June 2, 2026

What I’m Really Celebrating on My Daughter’s 22nd Birthday

On this day 22 years ago, I was nine months pregnant and pretty terrified.

I was days away from giving birth to my third child.

My husband had just moved out.

And life as I knew it was unraveling.

This was NOT the plan.

When I got pregnant the third time around, I had a very clear picture of what life was supposed to look like.

You know what they say about best laid plans…

None of it unfolded the way I imagined.

This week she turns 22.

And while birthdays invite us to celebrate the people we love and all they’ve become…this year I’ve found myself reflecting on something else too.

How much I’ve grown and evolved alongside her.

What I didn’t know back then was that becoming her mother would also mark the beginning of one of the most challenging—and transformative—seasons of my life.

The years that followed changed everything.

How I parented.

How I related to partnership, love and intimacy.

How I held fear.

How I trusted myself.

And somewhere in the middle of all of it, motherhood slowly began waking me up to all the ways fear had been running the show.

To the places I stayed small.

To how easily I lost myself trying to hold everything and everyone together to control the uncontrollable outcome.

And slowly—through the heartbreak, the healing, the resistance and a whole lot of letting go—I began relating to life, parenting, and all relationships differently.

I began seeing through a new lens.

Less fear.

More trust.

Less control.

More surrender.

More awareness.

More freedom.

And every day, I continue expanding.

Fear still shows up.

Life still stretches me.

Relationships still invite me deeper.

But now I meet those moments with more curiosity, more compassion, and more trust in than I ever knew was possible.

If there’s one thing my daughter—and the last 22 years—have taught me, it’s this:

Your relationships aren’t here to break you.

As messy and beautiful and stretching as they can be…

they often become the very thing that wakes you up.

They reveal what’s true. They invite you to grow and evolve.

And they bring you back home to your most empowered self again and again.

So this week, while I’m celebrating my daughter and the incredible woman she’s becoming…

I’m also celebrating the woman I’ve become through mothering her and re-mothering myself along the way.

Now I am wondering about you?

What relationships are stretching you the most in this season?

Which ones are asking you to trust more deeply… soften your grip… or step more fully into your power?

What if these relationships are here for your awakening?

What if they are here to shape who you’re truly meant to  become in ways you can’t fully see yet?

Sometimes the hardest relationships end up teaching you exactly what you most need to remember.

I’m here for it. How about you?

In love, 

Annmarie

PS: If you find your relationships challenging and conflict arising, I created a free 3-minute quiz to help you recognize the hidden patterns that may be shaping how you respond—and how to begin shifting them with more awareness and compassion.