The Rain Star Babies Paper Doll Story

Who would have thought that tapping into my creativity and a pair of good scissors would help me find my happy zone and greatly impact my healing journey. My name is Nathalie, I’m an RN by profession with proclivity to arts and crafts on the side. When I became pregnant with my first child back in 2005, I wrote “The Rain Star Babies”, a short fairytale-like story about babies inspired by my pregnancy and I started illustrating them with a goal to turn it into a real book. Juggling motherhood, a career in nursing and my book project was not an easy feat, my favorite project was put on the back burner.

When I had my second child, my health problems started manifesting its symptoms and it just got worse year after year. In 2013, I had to quit my job due to fatigue, constant body pain, near-syncope and severe migraine. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and other co-morbidities. Depending on severity of symptoms, life with Fibromyalgia can be very challenging. I had to gather all my strength to get up in the morning to be there for my kids before going to school. When they’re in school, I had to lay down and sleep due to debilitating fatigue and pain so I’d have the strength to walk to school later in the afternoon to pick them up, while my husband is at work. After I picked them up, I would give them snacks and take a 30 minutes nap again in order to have the energy to help them with homework and prepare dinner. No amount of sleep or resting relieves the fatigue that comes with fibromyalgia and being constantly in pain made it excruciatingly exhausting. One time, I was napping longer than usual, my kids ages 9 and 5 woke me up crying. They were crying because they thought something really bad happened to me, when I asked them why they’re crying, my 9 year old said “I thought you died”! Seeing how this affective my young kids who are still in need of my care, I resolved to do my best to manage my pain, fatigue and all other health issues, so I can be more present for them. I’am more than my health challenges and I have two great reasons to take my life back.

I went to different specialists to address my health issues and we tried different meds and alternative measures that can help manage my debilitating symptoms. I tried massage, acupuncture, biofeedback, meditation and positive thinking in addition to diet and exercise.

One day in 2016, while I was browsing through my old notebook I came across the short story I wrote back then “The Rain Star Babies”, as I read them again cute images of these little babies came to mind. For the rest of the day, my mind was occupied with ideas of how they would look like illustrated, how they would look like if they were 3 dimensional dolls or if I made paper dolls version.

I went to look for a pair of scissors, scrap fabrics, empty boxes of tissue paper, old gift bags, stickers and started drawing my prototype. It was a beautiful eureka moment of finding a way to consciously create a happy zone with nothing too fancy or expensive, just a pair of good scissors, recyclable materials, odds and ends and happy images in my head. Everyday I have something I look forward to creating, and while creating, it took my mind off my worries and pains. The process of creating arts and crafts kept me awake longer. I am happy and my health continued to improve.

Took me years to finish but I finally self-published my book “The Rain Star Babies”. Last October of 2019 before the pandemic, I had my first book reading event in the public library, where I taught kids how to recreate the Rain Star Babies paper dolls using scissors, glue, recycled empty boxes of tissue paper and other paper products after I read them the book.

Fast forward to today, some of my symptoms saw improvements but I still have some health challenges. The pandemic is another difficult challenge to contend with but we humans are resilient. I strongly believe that if we tap into our creativity, no matter how difficult and challenging life is, we will find our happy zone to unburden our minds and a way to ease our pains even just for a while with diversional activities that doesn’t take a fancy tool to create. Sometimes, all it takes is just a pair of good scissors, recyclable materials and our untapped creativity, to create our happy zone, a respite from all difficulties we face in life. Happy creating happiness!