On My 5th, my family and I celebrated International Family Equality Day, a holiday Family Equality Council helped create to celebrate families with parents who identify as LGBT. It was a fantastic day of fun. Also an inspirational day as I took stock of the fact that families with parents who are LGBT were celebrating in more than 15 countries from the US to Australia, Europe to Japan. International Family Equality Day in a new tradition for my family. One we will always look forward to. Now, just around the corner is Mother’s Day- a day that has held tradition throughout my life.
For many of my young adult years, approaching this day in May meant I would race off on Saturday night to get a card for my mom to tell her how much I loved her. Now as a parent, Mother’s Day has become a day I treasure and it fills my heart with much emotion. About eleven years ago, my partner and I started seriously planning to become parents. Given that we are two women, it required a great deal of plans, calculations and logistics.
We started the adoption process not fully understanding that for many months, it would be a part time job. Completing forms, signing forms, notarizing forms, asking those in our lives to vouch on our behalf that we would make great parents, and on and on and on…
Then on July 19, 2004 our lives changed forever – for the better. Our oldest daughter was born and suddenly Mothers’ Day was real. I can still remember that first mother’s day out with our daughter – we had three sets of our “parental units” come down to celebrate the day with us. We went out for brunch and I never felt as proud as I did holding our daughter that day – out in public – for others to see. I’m not sure if the people in the restaurant even picked up that we were two moms – but for us – we felt like we had just won the proud lottery. I remember looking over at my partner as she was just beaming as the server wished her “Happy Mothers’ Day.”
Once we had our second daughter we no longer went out for brunches – our kids are just now getting to that age where going out to eat is a fun experience vs. an aerobic workout trying to become a fully-engaged entertainers for kids. Now our Mothers’ Day consists of breakfast at home, playing outside, family walks, talks and fun. We enjoy this time with our kids because we know that sometime, not in the too distant future – for them – Mothers’ Day will be racing out the night before to choose one of the three cards left on the shelf for us.
To all the mothers and soon-to-be-mothers – happy day to you! Celebrate, enjoy and share the love. Let us also not forget that this day is also meant to honor the countless women who are birth mothers and made the ultimate sacrifice to let another family love their child for always. Thank you to two very special birthmothers who will forever hold a special place in my heart. Happy Mothers’ Day…