This year I get to celebrate Mother’s Day as a mother.
I cannot explain how much that means. How it is a dream come true that I didn’t even know I dreamed so hard until it almost didn’t happen. Right now all the things I thought were so important don’t matter. They fade away next to my little boy.

I would not be a mother right now without the love and support of my family and friends. You were there through the whole journey. This blog gave me a place to write about what we were facing, before I knew I’d need it so much. Every time I posted about our progress and what our next step was, there were your positive comments floating us along. When I asked for good vibes music you came through, people who were basically strangers took time out of their lives to help. After the painful procedures when I wasn’t sure if it was going to matter, you encouraged me. During the almost unbearable two weeks before the pregnancy test, the supportive emails kept arriving. And even though I planned to keep the results a secret for a while, I could not. Not after everything, how you’d been there all along. And when I got to tell you I was pregnant I felt like I was telling my family.

I started talking to him when he was an embryo clinging inside of me. And I talked to him from when he was a Peanut until we knew he was a HIM. I talked to him as the gifts came in so he would know how much people loved him already. We read books together, decorated a nursery and attended childbirth classes. All the while he grew. He grew until he was almost ready to become his own person. And then he came, ten days early and not at all wanting to come out. There you were again sending so much love I had Erika read the comments out loud in my hospital room. Know this…I believe that I am a mother today because of you and I will never forget.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers, people who take a motherly role in someone’s life and those who continue to endure physical and emotional hurdles to become mothers.