When Amber Johnson posted a photo of herself to Facebook while holding two of her young sons, using words she had borrowed from another mom whose feelings she experienced too, she never imagined the reach it would have.
Now that it's been shared almost 120,000 times, she told "Good Morning America," she thinks it's because the words were the kind "that strike raw emotion whether you are an expecting mother, new mom or grandmother."
The original author, Hayley Hengst, wrote a longer piece for Austin Moms Blog about how hard this stage of life is too. But it was the part about the beauty in it that spoke to Amber and inspired her to post.
"At the time I read this [Hayley's piece] I was sitting on the couch nursing my newborn and watching my two year old play pretend in the living room," Johnson, a mom of three from Alva, Florida, said. "Everything she [Hayley] described in her blog was so incredibly applicable in my life at that moment. From the being able to snuggle both boys in my lap, to my husband and I learning each other and loving each other in an entirely different way and the business and magic of stages to come. "
Hengst told "GMA" the reason her original story is still striking a chord with women nearly thee years after she originally wrote it is because it's "so true."
"With this particular one, I literally just sat down in the living room, after a crazy, but very normal, day with my three boys who at the time, were 6, 2, and 9 months old and just thought to myself, 'oh my gosh. This is crazy. This stage of life is literally insane. I didn't even do anything remarkable today, and yet, I seriously feel so proud of myself for just making it through the day.'''
Johnson could relate.
"Everything she described in her blog was so incredibly applicable in my life at that moment," she said.
"From the being able to snuggle both boys in my lap, to my husband and I learning each other and loving each other in an entirely different way and the business and magic of stages to come. "