Meet the Bloom Girl: Julia Greensmith
We asked, they shared. Get to know the Bloom Girls that help our business grow.
If you frequent Babies in Bloom, you are probably pretty familiar with the lovely ladies that make up our retail team. From the moment you walk in, you’re bound to meet one or more of our Bloom Girls. They are always on hand to offer recommendations about classes, supplies, and goodies from our boutique. They can also provide information about everything to meet your needs, from baby-wearing to GroovaRoo classes.
With the wealth of knowledge they have to share on the daily, it’s hard to get to know know more about them while you’re interacting in the boutique! That’s why we asked each of our Bloom Girls to share a little about their lives outside babies, birth, and Babies in Bloom – but it’s still very likely all three of these things will come up. What can we say? There’s a reason they are Bloom Girls, after all.
We can’t wait for you to learn more about these fantastic women. By the end of this interview, we just know you’ll feel inspired by, relate to, and want to be BFF’s with each of them.
Meet Julia Greensmith, Bloom Girl since 2017!
What’s your story? Tell us a little about what makes you, you.
Hi there! When someone asks me what makes me me, I really do have to pause and think…I kinda feel like I’m in a place in life where I’m not really sure and, I guess, to rediscover myself. I think with having children this loss of oneself is only natural and we as mothers do go through a new sense of self discovery. With big life changes, like becoming a mother, there is a period where we have to find ourselves again.
I think with the amount of changes that have occurred with me personally, it’s only natural to have lost that sense of who I am, but here goes: I am 35 years old, a wife to my husband, Matthew, and a mother to my 4 beautiful children: Laila (10), Aiden (9), Josh (5), and baby Gia (6 months).
I was born and raised in the Rainbow Nation, South Africa!
I had a very full, happy, active life in Johannesburg, and spent many vacations (holidays) on the coast in UmHlanga, Kwazulu Natal. I went to a Catholic All-Girls’ School until eighth grade, and then attended The National School of the Arts for 9th through 12th grade, where I lived out my passion dancing ballet, contemporary and Spanish. I met my husband when I was just 15, and he told me then we were going to get married one day!
Thinking back to that time fills me with that passion and love for life! I saw myself as artsy, unique, but very level-headed and driven. I led the school council and won Best All-Round Student in the 12th grade. I have always had a sense of leadership and enjoy working with others.
Back now to the part about my now-husband telling me at 15 that he was going to marry me. In the 12th grade I actually broke his heart when we broke up for 6 months. It was during that time I think I needed to be free and he needed to grow personally. This was a big event in our lives, which we still often speak about. We each dated other people during that time, but we were eventually led back to one another. Now, 13 years later, we are here we living in Sunny California and raising a family!
Dance has always been a part of my life.
After 12th grade, I decided not to pursue dance as a career, but rather to attend University, where I studied a 4-year degree to become an Occupational Therapist. I worked in the townships for my Community Service year, interacting with people on such a real grassroots level. It was extremely humbling and rewarding, but also had its frustrations and sadness too. I often think back that time too and wonder where those children, mothers, fathers, and families are, and how they are doing. I wonder if they remember me.
From there, I went on to working in two private pediatric practices for 3 years, which was very different but so fulfilling. Whilst working, I continued dancing and completed my associate levels and teachers in ballet, modern and Spanish.
Dance has always been a part of my life. The funny thing is, my sister went on to complete her 12th grade year at the Catholic school I left, and then took dance professionally. She has danced all over the world and is currently dancing for the Geneva Ballet Company in Switzerland. I watch her dance and am so overcome with emotion. I feel it, I taste it, I know it so well. It speaks to my inner core. I think it will always be apart of who I am.
We won Green Card Lottery.
A major life-changing event was when we won the Green Card Lottery in 2008. This is a diversity visa program, which allows you to enter into the USA with permanent residency and the opportunity to live and work anywhere in the United States. We entered and won! I was pregnant at the time with my first baby and we had a year to put things in place before we left.
The early days of motherhood and life in the United States.
We were looking to leave South Africa in the September 2009. My daughter Laila was born in December 2008, and what I wanted to be a beautiful natural birth with no intervention ended up being a scheduled c-section. The breastfeeding journey also turned out to be a nightmare as I tried so hard, but she didn’t latch properly. I ended up with mastitis, thrush and a breast abscess, which had to be removed as it was a serious staph infection. I continued to pump for as long as I could, but often Laila drank pink milk from my bleeding nipples. It was awful. I still feel traumatized from that experience. When Laila was 5 months old, I found out I was pregnant with my son and, to be completely honest, I cried thinking of having to immigrate and then have another baby!
It all worked out with a lot of faith, trust and perseverance. Having planned visits from my parents helped to ease the yearning of missing them and home, but knowing this was a better choice to bring up our family and the ultimate goal for my parents to come over kept me going.
There are SO many stories about when we first came over, being pregnant on Medi-Cal with the food stamps, no car, etc. etc., but ultimately it strengthened me. Those first few years were tough and yet life was simple and I so enjoyed just being a mom to my two babies, 14 months apart and loving the newness of everything. I appreciated it all so very much.
Finding Babies in Bloom at the perfect time.
Before my third was born, we unfortunately had to go through the loss of both my husband’s parents, which was difficult. Falling pregnant with my third 3 years later, put me on a new path of discovery.
It was during this time that I became more aware of Babies in Bloom. We lived really close by, and I often enjoyed coming in to the store and browsing in the calm, inviting atmosphere that it brings. I learnt a lot about baby-wearing through Babies in Bloom, a friend, cloth diapering, and began my research into having a VBA2C. I feel so blessed to have gone down this path, resourcing a wonderful doula and having a natural birth.
I had two cesarean sections and then a VBAC with my third. I felt so incredibly empowered to have experienced a natural unmediated birth.
In April 2016, I had an ectopic pregnancy, which was difficult to get my head around. Baby was measuring 6 weeks, but was in the tube, which was beginning to rupture and I had to have surgery to remove the whole tube. It was pretty traumatic because I didn’t even know I was pregnant. I had a longer than normal period, and then one morning was in terrible pain, went to the doctor, found out I was actually pregnant, but was sent straight to the ER.
Just before I fell pregnant with my 4th, I had another early miscarriage. I always felt after that, that we weren’t quite done. Baby #4 was such a blessing! I was set on having another VBA2C but, unfortunately, I went to 42 weeks with no sign of labor and had to schedule another c-section.
I struggled to breastfeed with my daughter, as mentioned above, but nursed my next two babies with no issues until they were two. The 4th time around, things are also going well. It’s funny how just because you have one bad experience doesn’t mean it is set up to continue that way.
So here I am, a mom of 4, still dancing (just a lil differently than I initially imagined) and making connections through dance, baby-wearing, infant massage, other moms. Babies in Bloom brings such joy! I have discovered so much about myself along my journey so far and I look forward to the story which continues to unfold..
