Sunday, May 14, 2017

Mothers


I am surrounded by amazing Moms. Moms who have helped me define what I think it means to be a truly great Mom. Everyday I feel incredibly lucky to have the Mom that I do. My Mom is a powerhouse of support, encouragement, wisdom, kindness, hilarity and most of all love. I can imagine raising a kid with Cystic Fibrosis (especially this kid with CF) wasn’t easy. But both my Mom and my Dad taught me to view CF as a challenge instead of an unbreakable barrier. They made me feel like I could do anything, despite having CF. I just had to find other ways to achieve the things I wanted to achieve. I’ve always felt encouraged and supported by my family and I’m so grateful for that. Being able to get back up after life pushes you down is something you learn. My parents taught me how to be resilient which is something I value and rely on hugely and something I hope to teach my child.

But getting back to Moms… Mother’s Day, especially this Mother’s Day, has inspired me to reflect on not just how lucky I am to have such an amazing Mom, but how lucky I am to have all these incredible Mom’s in my life. Gratitude is a powerful feeling, and I’m filled with so much of it thinking about how privileged I am to have had the Grandmothers that I’ve had, to have the Auntie’s that I have, the sisters, the cousins and the girlfriends I have who are all such amazing Moms. All of these women have taught me about the kind of Mom that I really hope to be. 

  This Mother’s Day in particular, is a special one for me because of one particular woman. This woman is a very dear friend of mine who I love very much and have a HUGE amount of admiration for.  She is an incredible soul. This woman is allowing me to become a Mom,  something my heart has wanted for so so long.  Let me just write that again, because it still astonishes me every time I think about it. This woman is allowing me to become a Mom! She is going through the swollen feet, the nausea, the vomiting, the cravings, the sleepless nights, the heart burn, the all encompassing agonizing pain and discomfort of labour and delivery. All because I want to be a Momma so badly and CF made it too unsafe for me to be pregnant. It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around this. There are really no words that can even come close to expressing what is in my heart right now. But in an attempt to do so, I came across a quote that reads: “To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world”.  Our surrogate, quite simply, means the whole world to us and I will forever and always be incredibly thankful to her.

Today, I want nothing more than for all of the amazing Mommas that are in my life, especially the Mom that is allowing me to become a Mom, to know how special they are to me. I want them all to know that they mean so much to me, they have inspired me beyond words, they have encouraged me through heartbreak, and they have shown me strength, resilience, and unconditional love. Give all those amazing Mommas out there a big hug today. Happy Mother’s Day Mommas!

A special thank you to Erin Wallis Photography (who also happens to be one of those amazing Moms I look up to), for capturing our unique and unbreakable bond. Erin you are pure magic and I love you very much.