Guest Post: Letter To My Children This Mother's Day

I'm thankful for the opportunity to feature this letter from an adoptive mama today. Below she shares her heart for her children as they navigate the complexities of Mother's Day.

Adoptive Mama Guest Post:

To My Children This Mother’s Day,

This week the world celebrates “Mother’s Day” but for you it’s more complex-maybe sort of like eating a dessert while simultaneously pulling the bandaid off an open wound. There’s nothing simple about it-this coexisting sweetness and loss. Celebrating with me is sometimes a reminder for you that you aren’t celebrating with her. You love me with all that you are and tell me that repeatedly throughout each day. Yet right alongside that deep love for me, there is a deep love in your heart for the mama that you don’t get to hug today.

So this Mother’s Day and always, I want you to know that whatever you are feeling, you can go right ahead and feel it, even if you can’t quite explain what’s on your heart and mind. I’m right here with you. I wish so badly that I could take away the hard...that somehow I could keep you from experiencing any pain ever. But I know that the reality is this: love is big and messy and unexplainable and deep. And the love you feel for me and for her is all of those things. These are complicated things...I won't pretend otherwise.

My hope and prayer is that you wouldn’t ever think that loving well means only loving one of us. Love is big enough for us all. You love us both well, at the very same time. That’s undeniable. Your heart has such a beautiful capacity to love; you amaze me with the unmistakable tenderness and kindness and forgiveness you extend to us every single day. Please extend those same things towards yourself as you feel the complexity of this day.

On Mother’s Day (and any day) when your feelings are too big to categorize, I pray that you will look to Jesus. He is your compassionate Savior who knows your thoughts before you think them. He saw you before you were born and all of your days were written in His book before even one of them came to be! He says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. And He says that you are oh so very loved.

Love, Mommy