Mother’s Day is a holiday (similar to how singles feel on
Valentine’s Day) that can be such a painful, bittersweet day for women
struggling with infertility.
Just a year ago, I completely ignored the holiday altogether
after having just suffered my miscarriage weeks before. I didn’t even want to go out to a restaurant
to eat with the Sergeant, because I knew it would be too difficult to see a
bunch of moms celebrating the day with their kids. My poor Mom (who of course, was full of grace
and didn’t bat an eye), didn’t even receive a card.
This year, of course, is a whole different ball game. Mother’s Day 2016 marks the first day of my 2nd
trimester…just the thought of it brings happy tears to my eyes.
However, I am not far enough removed from that memory to not
be thinking about my friends that are still in the midst of their infertility
journeys…women who will be crying tears of an entirely different sort this
Sunday.
And so I am writing this blog as a reminder to all of us to
reach out, to touch base with those women (and their families, too) to let them
know that you know that it is a tough day for them, that you care about them,
that your greatest hope is that this is the last Mother’s Day in which they are
not holding their child in their arms.
Remind them that they are valuable as women because of who they are,
what they bring to other people’s lives, even if they don’t have the current
status of “mom.” Send them some love, to
break through the lonely wall that can often be built around a woman suffering
from infertility. Don’t forget the women
around you who have yearned to be celebrating this holiday for years, and have
not had that dream come true yet.
My prayer for these women who are struggling this Mother’s
Day is that one day, someone will hand them a baby.
