I’m part of an amazing collective known as “HU Mommies.” The “HU” stands for Hampton University, and the group was founded in 2015 by my girl, Jetaun, who found herself lonely, dealing with postpartum depression after giving birth to her first child, and in need of support from her peers.

Little did she know, the group would blossom into a support system of almost 800 women. We’re from various walks of life and have children of different ages, but we’re connected because we’re mothers and we had a one of a kind HBCU experience at Hampton University. Every woman in the group was invited by a friend (emphasis on the word friend) so that there is more authenticity.

Of all the mommy groups I’m apart of, HU Mommies is one of my favorites. I’ve reconnected with old friends (Jetaun included) and made new friends, especially last weekend. Fifteen of us, yes, 15 of us headed down to Savannah, Ga for a weekend of bonding, celebration, and planning. I can’t say what we were planning, but it will be good when it comes to fruition.

We rented a house and survived! We made it through with very minimal drama despite the fact that there were only four bathrooms for that many women! I wasn’t too sure about the trip at first because not all of the women on the trip were acquainted, but I’m a YOLO type (within reason), and I enjoy girls trips so I went ahead and jumped out the window. Little did I know, we were all about to walk away stronger, more connected and inspired.

Two of the women in the crew are pregnant. One mommy is expecting twins and Jetaun is expecting baby number two, so we did a baby blessing and presented them with quotes about motherhood, books, and other gifts. Not only that, but I reached out to various companies to secure swag for gift bags and they generously provided the goods! Every woman who attended got hooked up with an amazing gift bag with swag from CurlBox (actually Myleik provided us SheaMoisture Baby goodness from her CurlBox Kids collection), The Stork Bag (an amazing mommy box that provides mommy and me essentials), Eden BodyWorks, Katelynn and Adwoa and IMAN Cosmetics  (Katelynn and Adwoa was hooked up by Jetaun).

The looks on the ladies’ faces, when they got their surprise gifts, were amazing. We were all happy to be pampered and appreciated. Aside from the gift bags, we enjoyed amazing restaurants in Savannah (the food there is BOMB, but Savannah outside of the HU Mommies retreat is another post), and some of the in-house mommy cooks treated us to home-cooked brunch and dinner at times as well. I even met a half-brother that I didn’t even know I had, but that is a long, and another story for another post.

We missed our families and all that good stuff, but our weekend together was priceless and I can’t wait for what else is to come.

Having a mom tribe has kept me sane since I gave birth and there’s something extremely rewarding about fellowshipping with people who get it.