This Mother’s Day will be the first one I can celebrate as a mother of humans.  I spent many years celebrating Mother’s Day as a mom of furry four-legged critters, but of course it wasn’t the same.  In actuality, it hid the emptiness I had – an emptiness brought on by years of infertility and loss.

Women who are currently in the throes of, or those that have been through infertility, most assuredly can relate to these feelings.  It is because of this emptiness that on this first Mother’s Day and all that shall follow, I shall celebrate it feeling grateful – I don’t want it to be a celebration in honor of me as a mother since it is I who has the honor to have been blessed with my two baby humans.

Yet, I can’t help but contemplate the emptiness of the remaining members of the moms-in-waiting alliance.  It’s a club no woman wants to be a part of; you don’t volunteer for it and you certainly don’t search it out.  But you pay your dues – you have no choice in the matter. As a matter of fact, you pay years of dues reluctantly learning that often this quest for motherhood is a journey, not a sprint.  At least for us in the club. […]