Mine is my extending family now and Puddleducks. They have had Andrew since he was 5 months old and it's like a second home to him. I consider OB my village I have learnt so much and still continue to learn from you all.

I love this question and I've been having a think about it, which is why I'm coming in a little behind everyone else with my answer (that, and the fact that it's just insane behind the scenes at OHbaby! lately with the holiday rush and our upcoming magazine being planned). Anyway, my village is not the village I expected I'd have around me when I was growing up. My mom's family in the US were the village to raised me, even though they all lived rather far away. I have so many memories of spending summers at my grandmother's and great-grandmother's homes (they lived next door to each other). I always had a very strong sense of family, and the women in my family are particularly amazing role models -- all of them are strong survivors and creators.

When Emma Rose was born, I decided that I needed to capture that same feeling of security, love and strong roots that I grew up with, but for her sake. My family is very far away so it's DH's family who are the "village elders", I suppose -- the people I want her to be close to and to look up to. His aunties and uncles are all opinionated, fun-loving, loyal people, and I've tried to make sure that Emma has a connection to each of them and sees them as often as possible. She's named after DH's great-grandma, who is still alive and kicking at 85 and who is also an amazing woman. Being 8500 miles away from my own family has shown me the importance of forging relationships with your child's relatives, no matter how insane they drive me (especially certain in-laws!).

There are other amazing women in my daughter's village, too. I think because I've always had such a strong sense of how important female role models are to us as women, I've made a point to make friends with and seek out the companionship of other strong women. I don't have very many friends here in New Zealand, even after nearly six years of living here, but those I do have are treasures who make such a positive impression on my life that I am grateful for their presence in my daughter's life as well. I think that my daughter's village will be different from the one that raised me in a crucial way -- I've chosen villagers who not only love and care for my daughter, they support me as a mother and as a woman.

I also have long-distance villagers back in the US -- my best friend there is Em's godmother, and my other friends (again, there are only a few, but they are "quality") have been involved in her life right from the start. One of my most treasured friends in the US just sent Em the most incredible Christmas present -- it is a pin that belonged to her grandmother, and on it is a verse in Hebrew: "Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all" (Proverbs 31:29). My friend doesn't have any children, but for her to feel that Emma is important enough to want her to have this special piece of HER history means more to me than anything. That, to me, is what a village raising a child is all about -- people who include your child in their lives and don't just observe them from afar.