First off, Happy Father’s Day to all the great Daddys out there including my own and my husband.

Yesterday, on June 20th 2015, thousands of women, their spouses, their parents, their friends and their children participated in the 3rd Annual Climb Out Of The Darkness to raise awareness (and funds) for Postpartum Progress.  This amazing organization, founded by Katherine Stone back in 2004, started with 1 blog entry… a blog entry somewhat like the one I am writing now.  This blog entry was written by a mother struggling with Postpartum OCD, a mother who was thinking, “OMG, what is wrong with me?  Why am I feeling this way?”  From that one entry to this day, thousands of women have come forward with their Perinatal Mood Disorder stories to tell others you are not alone.  Us women are Warrior Moms and we are there to support each other, ourselves, struggling family members and friends, and all the moms who will fall victim to such illnesses as Postpartum Depression, Anxiety, OCD, Psychosis, etc.  We respect and earned our Warrior Mom title.

Yesterday, amongst the thousands of women, my co-leader, Mariah Warren, and I hiked the white trail at the Sal J. Prezioso Mountain Lakes Park (http://parks.westchestergov.com/sal-j-prezioso-mountain-lakes).  We weren’t one of the largest groups but we were a strong group:

Team Hudson Valley / Housatonic 2015

This group included spouses that were told to leave by us wives, children that were hated by their depressed mothers, and relatives that “just didn’t understand.”  Now we are much stronger women.  Our trail led us to an open clearing with views that were just magnificent:

Here us warrior moms stood, took deep breaths, and became thankful we were not where we were weeks, months, years ago.  Here we Climbed Out Of The Darkness:

5 Warrior Moms… Still Got A Lot Of Fight Left In Me

Joined together by illnesses we never wanted to suffer from, we are just a few in a huge family of Warrior Moms that was created by 1 blog post over a decade ago and although healthy now, we still struggle at times with other demons.

But “Like a small boat, On the ocean, Sending big waves, Into motion, Like how a single word
Can make a heart open, I might only have one match, But I can make an explosion.”

My Fight Song… cliffside at Sal J. Prezioso Mountain Lakes Park

Myself and my greatest gift in the whole world, my daughter Sophia