Omaha Moms Blog:: Introducing Sara

Sara
Photo Credit: Rachael Karmazin

Omaha

Hi Mamas! My name is Sara Hoogeveen. I couldn’t be more excited to begin sharing my personal thoughts and journeys with you via Omaha Moms Blog. I feel utterly blessed to be connected with such an amazing forum for moms everywhere. Before I begin uploading my experiences with you, please allow me to share a little about myself and my journey into writing and momhood. I have resided in the Omaha metro or suburbs since 2007 being a transplant from Avoca, Iowa. I have loved living in Omaha and am very grateful to have ended up here. This is my kind of metro area being someone who enjoys the vast luxuries of city living paired with an aching need to see, visit, and live near a scenic countryside. Other than Omaha’s close proximity to the cornfields and wooded areas I am drawn to, I love the city’s small degrees of separation. What I mean is, I’m pretty sure there is no one I know who doesn’t know someone else I know. Omaha seems to support less than six degrees of separation, and I find it incredibly fun to repeatedly realize just how small this world is! Omaha is also a wonderful place to be a mom because of this. I have made many a friend since having my first child, and those relationships have stood the test of toddler time. 

Moms

I currently reside in southwest Omaha with my amazing and hardworking husband, Blake, and our (almost) two children, Marian (February 2017) and Henry (August 2019). We very recently purchased an acreage in this area, which is the perfect combination for city dwelling luxuries and country dwelling sceneries. This home is absolutely my happy place (second only to Marian’s sweet face). I fervently enjoy gardening and quiet, both of which are ample in our new space. I would expect a few blogs about my adventures with parenting young children while creating an acre wide garden with chickens. Yes, that’s right, city chickens—I’m that mom! After making the challenging decision to become a stay-at-home mom, I realized raising small people is my true calling in life. Never have a I felt so at home as I do at home. Some days are challenging (insert eye roll about currently potty training here) but most days are amazing (I’ve never smiled so much in my life). 

Blog

The main reason I couldn’t be more excited to have been included as a contributor to OMB is two-fold. I have a strong passion for writing, and I strongly believe the written word can change people’s lives. They say write what you know, and what I currently know the most about in my life is being a positive, distracted, routine-driven, loving, and sometimes frustrated mother. I have a professional background in child welfare with some experience in the healthcare field. After accomplishing my bachelor and masters’ degrees, I worked in various child welfare positions, including child protective services investigator, child and family outcome monitor, drug court liaison, community resource specialist, and (my favorite) foster care support specialist and trainer. I have come to realize that I literally use my degrees every single solitary day momming (and you do, too)! I’m excited to bring this perspective to the mom-blogging community. 

I enjoy being a mom immensely, have wonderful and disastrous adventures, and cannot wait to share them with this community in hopes that, if nothing else, no mom will ever feel alone in her household.  

Sara Hoogeveen
Sara is a career child welfare worker turned career mama. After having their first child, Marian (Feb 2017), she realized her true calling in life was to mom and mom hard! Sara resides with her husband, Blake, and daughter in West Omaha. They are expecting their second child, Henry, August 2019. Sara is a Nebraska transplant from Iowa while Blake grew up in Bellevue, NE. She has a professional background in child development, psychology, and human services, and puts these degrees to use every day in raising her children. Sara is a staunch believer in only being able to care for others when you also care for yourself. When she’s not momming, she can be found reading books from a book club she co-leads, cooking, or crafting.