Mother's Day

This Mother's Day is different for me. Mother's Day has always been bittersweet for me. The first few that I spent as a married woman were hard because I longed to have a baby in my arms.

The Mother's Days that came after my first loss were hard because I longed to hold that lost child in my arms.

When I was pregnant with my oldest son, Mother's Day was a real treat. I was finally getting the one thing my heart desired the most, a child.

Each Mother's Day since then has been bittersweet. I want to love and cherish the children I have here with me, but I also want to honor the children I have lost.

These people made me a mother this side of heaven. They not only made me a mother, they made me the mother I am today. I cherish every single moment with them. I love them more than they will ever know.

I long for the day we will all be together again.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there.

No matter how you became a mom, you are amazing and I love you.

Happy Mother's Day to the grieving mother who will never hold her child in her arms this side of heaven.

Happy Mother's Day to the grieving mother who has to say hello and goodbye to her child on the  very same day.

Happy Mother's Day to the new mother who doesn't think she's doing it right.

Happy Mother's Day to the mother who is missing her child because they moved away, because her child serves in the military, or because she no longer has the relationship with her children that she wishes she did.

Happy Mother's Day to the mother who lost her child and longs to see them just once more.

Happy Mother's Day to the birth mom who made the toughest decision of her life; to watch someone else raise her child.

Happy Mother's Day to the adoptive mother who finally has her happily ever after.

Happy Mother's Day to the foster mother who has stepped in to take care of someone else's child when they no longer can.

Happy Mother's Day to the grandmother's who are raising their grandchildren.

Happy Mother's Day to the tired moms who think they mess it all up on a daily basis.

Happy Mother's Day to the grandmothers that are watching their children raise their own babies.

Happy Mother's Day to the stay at home moms who feel like the never have a break.

Happy Mother's Day to the homeschooling moms, you are amazing and you are all my role  models.

Happy Mother's Day to the working moms who make mothering and running a household look like a piece of cake.

Happy Mother's Day to the single moms who are doing it all alone and rocking it in the process!

I hope you all find some kind of joy today. Joy in the memories you share, joys in the memories of your loved ones, joys in the living children you still have, joys in the hopes that one day your pain won't be quite so sharp, joy in the fact that one day you will be reunited once again.

You are doing a great job, I am proud of you, and I am proud of me.

I know, from experience, that days like this can be brutal. I know it is sometimes easier to hide. Just know that you are loved.