We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Claudia Campbell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Claudia below.

Claudia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name of my blog is: “Waiting on Peonies”

After years of infertility and multiple IVF cycles, we were pregnant with triplet boys. Unfortunately, as we approached 23 weeks, I went into premature labor and our sons died in my arms after spending just minutes with them here on earth.

The year we lost our sons. my husband planted my favorite flower, peonies, in honor of them. It took 3 years for us to get the first bloom and that year we got 3 flowers, one for each of our sons.

Over the years as I struggled with chronic pain, even after we were blessed with our daughters, I would become bedridden. I hardly made it down the stairs, except to look at the peonies in bloom. And each year, we would get blooms in multiples of three. My girls would say “Mom is waiting on peonies!”

As I continue to do life as a special needs mama to two girls with autism, and as I still deal with lingering effects from years of battling Endometriosis, the peonies became a symbol of life, joy, and hope. In life, we are always in a season of waiting. And in our home, we like to say on the beautiful, the hard, and the beautifully hard days, we are “waiting on peonies.”

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am actually an actuary by trade. I spend my days solving math problems and never imagined I would be a writer.

However, as I walked through a difficult time of pain, infertility, and depression, writing became an outlet. As I continued writing, people would send me messages of encouragement, and also ask me to sit with them in their darkest moments.

I don’t often think of what makes me different from others. I would rather think of what makes me the same. We are all walking through challenging times and it’s hard to acknowledge that sometimes. suffering lasts for a long time. I come from a place of not having all the answers, but I am here to sit with you, on the floor, in the darkness so that you know that you are not alone. I want to point you to a loving Father who will hold you and carry you in the hardest of times.

I want potential followers to know that I don’t have it all together. I walk through challenges daily, yet still JOY is possible even while darkness lingers. I want them to know that they can gather at my table and I will sit with them, and they are not alone. I want them to know that there is a loving Father who sees them and cares for them and who is good on the beautiful days and on the hard ones too.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My business partner is my husband! We met in high school and have been together for 23 years and married for almost 18 years.

He’s the only boy I’ve ever known and we still go on dates, when our children will allow us.

He proposed to me at 21 years old in the middle of a disagreement after I thought we had broken up. It was not romantic at all! He promised that he wasn’t there to make me feel warm and fuzzy on the good days, because he didn’t have to try to do that, what he was promising was that on the bad days, the hard days, the days where we think everything is falling apart, he won’t ever leave. And he never has!

With all our challenges, he is the definition of constant and I wouldn’t want to do this with anyone but him!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is seeing the hearts of people change as you share His love and joy with them. It is seeing the walls come down as they realize that you are sitting with them and you won’t leave them hanging. It is sharing in their miracles as they manifest after years of prayer and also watching their joy return even after holding their tears when it seemed like their entire world would fall apart.

Knowing that people are a bit more in awe of the Father and the wonder of His love after sitting with you, is the most rewarding part of it all.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.claudiarcampbell.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claudiarcampbell

Image Credits
Courtney Lynn Photography Ewurama Hayford Photography Erica Smith Photography Jessie Passon Portraiture