Mother’s Day is right around the corner. I don’t now about you but it seemed to have snuck up on me this year.
I love this day. I love to celebrate my mom and my mother-in-law. I love to be honored and celebrated as a mother myself. But, every year I have to remember, for many, this day is full of pain and heartache.
There was a time, not too long ago, in the midst of my infertility, when I could have done without Mother’s Day. I remember feeling as though I was falling down a dark hole, flailing around, trying to grab ahold of anything I could to get a baby in my womb. But there was nothing to grab onto and so I feel until I hit the bottom where I found myself broken and bruised, in a pile of mud.
During this season for me, Mother’s Day was a sharp reminder of my deepest, unreachable, desire…to be a mom.
But as I sat in that mud, knees to my chest, sobbing, I began to look around. I saw, pushing their way through the mud, tiny, bright green shoots of life. Green shoots of hope.
When I took the time to sit in the difficulty of my infertile, I began to see some of the most beautiful and worthy things in life can only sprout from the mud.
Today, as a mother of three spectacular children, I can hardly remember the pain of that season of infertility. However, as Mother’s Day approaches, I am keenly aware of the pain this day means for so many women. I think of friends of mine who have buried their babies or their mothers or both. I think about my children’s birth moms who have had to let go of the child they will forever love. I think about moms who spend every breath and ounce of energy simply keeping their babies safe and feed, who feel desperate for some help. I think of people like me, who are desperate for a baby but cannot get pregnant, or who cannot afford the adoption fees needed to fly to another part of the world and make an orphan their own.
Yes, Mother’s Day can be a painful reminder of what was, or what could have been.
For me, as I celebrate my mom and I’m celebrated as a mother, it’s important to remember those who are hurting. I think in life we need to learn how to let celebration and heartache mingle with one another. We need to learn we can feel the joy of a day like Mother’s Day as well as join those we love who only feel the pain, and the other way around.
This Mother’s Day, I’m excited to be joining forces with some incredible people who believe in the power and purpose of Motherhood by being apart of the Mother’s Day Fund.
This is an easy and practical way to actually give the gift of motherhood.
The Mother’s Day Fund has one clear objective: connect those with resources to mothers in need in order to preserve the integrity of every family. For existing families, the MDF will allocate funds to women who lack the ability to provide basic resources for their children, such as food, shelter, clothing and education. For adoptive mothers, the MDF will help cover the overwhelming costs involved with adoption by partnering with families fundraising through AdoptTogether.
No matter where you find yourself this Mother’s Day, we can all celebrate motherhood by being people who help create it. So cool.
(Check out more about the Mother’s Day Fund by clicking here)
