Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day! I know that this is a bit late but I wrote this and never got to post it:

For the mother who is waiting to adopt:

Although you are not physically pregnant, you are going through a paper pregnancy that is a huge roller coaster ride. You have been given several due dates that not only have drastically changed from 1 month to another, but end up being much later than you expected. You have to worry about rainy seasons, strange holidays, court dates, and/or other delays. You also will probably be pregnant with your child for longer than it takes a biological mother to go through her entire pregnancy and give birth. If you picked "either boy OR girl", as far as the sex of your child is concerned, you are probably still waiting to find out the sex of your child. You will not find out until a month or two before the adoption is finalized. You get strange looks when you go to sign up for a baby registry and then see the associate look at your stomach suspiciously as you assure them that there IS a child on the way and it IS yours! Even if you don't physically look pregnant and have the weight of a baby in your tummy you have the weight of your child on your heart. You wonder about them often hoping that they are okay, happy, safe, and taken care of. You wonder if they’ll get sung to and rocked, who will feed them, and who will put them to bed? You don’t get ultra sounds every few months to re-assure you that your child is “on target” and doing okay. You get to know your post office workers/fed-ex workers on a first name basis and they, often, are the ones who deliver your baby to you. Although you (internationally adopting) can't physically be there the day they are born you have the pain of knowing that you have missed out on several months and several photo memorable sessions of their lives. But - when everything is said and done you know that the paper pregnancy was worth it and that your child is a precious gift. That you are now their mother and there is no greater feeling in the world!