Twelve months in picture
 
 
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and pen.
 
I began this year in Johannesburg, with my family. Touching origin soil, living life outside and beyond our North American context for those few months, touched me as deeply as I expected it would. While in Europe and Africa, I met with MOE clients monthly over a virtual connection. So beautiful to me, the relationships we were able to grow across continents - and a sweet calling to come back stateside - to help them joyfully welcome the new loves of their lives.
It was birth that brought me back.
 
We didn't plan to stay in the U.S. this year, not beyond birth through May. But work, life, circumstance - called us here through the entire year of 2024. 
I journeyed with more Black American mothers and fathers and babies and grandparents, to and through birth. 
I met people and had experiences that I would not have had otherwise, had the plans we'd made been realized. 
I did a whole heck of a lot this year - both personally and professionally - and I am grateful for the people and the experiences that have colored this year of my life, and of my business.
 
Every day since launching MOE in January 2022, I have been under contract for work with one or more clients. And for the first time, I let myself express out loud that I needed rest, moving into this holiday season. I'd like to say that I listened to my body and my mind, and closed my calendar to potential holiday season contracts, but I did not. Nevertheless, my Creator heard me, and knew what I needed, and allowed every single request for consultation for NOV + DEC in-person births to not work out. For the first time in my professional doula career, 
I have turned my phone off when it's time for bed, I have pretty consistently gotten up each morning at 5:30AM for puppy care and yoga, and I have spent far more balanced time with my children, my husband, and my self.
MOE Highlights Of The Year
 
- Launched NBD
 
- Brought more birthing joy to Black families choosing birth at NC hospitals
 
- Supported my first NC homebirth
 
- Taught a class on business matters to Doula students at a local CLT hospital
 
- Deepened fellow birthing work friendships over meals and collabs
 
- Volunteered as a doula and lactation professional at a local CLT hospital
 
- Surprised by a meet-up with my first doula baby in-person (virtual support)
 
- Invited to and accepted a seat on the Community Advisory Board for Atrium Health's Community Doula Program
 
- Partnered with UNC Charlotte's 
MCH Workgroup
 
- Earned a scholarship and completed The Mama Glow Foundation's First Foods Justice Program classes
 
- Welcomed my first college intern, Hey, Keira!
 
- Crafted my favorite + new staple postpartum client meal
 
- Supported my first virtual birth in TX
 
- Joined the newly formed + mighty Black Maternal Health Community Collective (Mecklenburg County)
 
- Took my first birth support rest period
 
Thank you. To every client, every colleague, every friend, and every love of my life who has supported me and MOE - in any way - this year. 
I look forward to the birth of 2025, may it be more than I could ever plan.
 
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Birth Tells
This right here, is probably the most remarkable highlight to the end of this remarkable year. Genia didn't know this, 
but when she asked me and my husband to record this conversation between her and her Grand(mother), I'd just lost mine. And when my grandmother passed, so did the stories she never told. Even though I spent some time this year asking both of my grandmothers questions, writing some things down, and thinking a considerable amount about them - I still come from a folk whose life's stories remain prominently hidden. Therefore, it was an extraordinary and timely gift to me - to be tapped for this work, invited to listen, and to document maternal transparency and vulnerability. When she's ready, I'll point you to the beauty of the visual interview. Until then, have a listen to its audio, preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. 
 
Archived Here On NPR's StoryCorps
 
 
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with humility,
kris
 
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I’m not only glad to be Black. 
I think Black people are incredibly important to planet earth. Because whatever it was, we found a way to love through it. And that’s what we’re going to have to find a way to write about. We, who were enslaved, found a way - to cook, to dance, to laugh. We found something.
 
- Nikki Giovanni
 
Rest in Love
 
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Huntersville, NC 28078, United States
 
 
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Black Birthing Matters: Who Are Your Providers of Care?
Preparing for Birth And postpartum
 
 
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