Hi, I’m Elisa, or the “E” here at BlissfulE, and this is the story of how I went from career woman to blissful mum.

In 2004 my boss’s boss took me out to lunch. Over nachos at a local pub, he asked me if and when I was planning to have children. I started to explain that Ben and I had a five-year-plan… but I realised as I was speaking that we were right at five years. So I told this man the truth – we didn’t have a plan for having kids.

A week later I was given a 30% pay rise.

Leaving aside the dubious ethics motivating the manager’s curiosity, the conversation got me thinking. And praying. And talking with my husband. I hadn’t wanted children, but as I prayed I felt God change my heart and give me that desire.

We tried for a time to conceive, but the stress of my demanding job prevented it. So I walked away from a six-figure salary and laid my career on the altar of following God in what I felt was the new calling on my life.

We began using Natural Family Planning to track my fertility. Anomalies in my waking temperatures caused me to seek solutions through diet and supplements using Marilyn Shannon’s excellent book, Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition.

When I finally fell pregnant in late 2005, I began approximately nine months of research into natural birth, breastfeeding, and child psychology. Now as a full-time mum, I employ what I learned and am still learning on a daily basis.

This blog, BlissfulE, is the space where I share from our lives so that you can be encouraged in yours.

Questions and comments are welcome: blissfule.me @ gmail.com