Happy Mother's Day

This is my first Mother's Day with my children. It's a day that has been long coming, and seeing those shining faces wake me up this morning filled my heart with more love than I could have ever known.

The last two Mother's Days, I was pregnant. Two years ago, I didn't know I was pregnant for the first time. However, that pregnancy wouldn't last.

Last year, I was VERY pregnant with Maya and Maxwell. I was on bed rest with high blood pressure. Maya and Maxwell didn't even have names yet! They would end up missing Mother's Day by two days, but that's ok. They are almost one year old and I feel great!

But I believe I became a mother long before I first saw my children. I don't remember exactly when it happened, but it was about the time I started thinking less of myself and more of my future children.

I remember that episode of Friends where Chandler and Monica are meeting with a potential birth mother and ended up lying to her. Chandler went to the angry mother and tried to explain their actions. He said something like "I have a lot to learn to become a father, but Monica's already a mother...she just doesn't have a baby yet." (That was totally paraphrased.) I thought that was so beautiful.

I'm not the only mother I know who is celebrating a first Mother's Day today. So to the mothers celebrating their first and their nth Mother's Day, I wish you the happiest of days!

And to those mothers who don't have their babies yet, I wish you a Happy Mother's Day also.