honoring mothers: what's YOUR story?

Chances are, the majority of you reading this are mothers.

Either mothers of grown children [maybe even having grandchildren already!] or mothers of young children or somewhere in between. Maybe you're a first-time expectant mother or you are a hopeful expectant mother. Perhaps you're even a mother waiting for your precious adopted child to be brought home.

Or maybe you're a mother at heart, still longing for your dream of a child to come true, wondering if it will ever become a reality. Maybe you suffered through a miscarriage [or two] but at one point did have life growing inside of you. Maybe you even gave birth to a child only to lose him/her in the days, weeks, months or even years that followed.

Whatever category you're in, you are a mother. A mother in action, a mother in waiting, a mother in spirit. And all of those roles are important; they all tell a story.

A couple of weeks ago I watched the movie "What to Expect When You're Expecting" [with Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez] and I was impressed with the various situations that they covered in that movie. From planned pregnancies to surprise pregnancies. From adoption to fertility treatments. From easy pregnancies to really difficult pregnancies. From miscarriages to a story of multiples.

It got me thinking that every mother has their own unique story of how things came to be. There is no ONE way to become a mother. A mother with a houseful of children running around is no more of a mother than the woman who is longing for her belly to swell with child. A mother with a child who does not share her blood is no less of a mother than the woman who biologically birthed her brood. A mother can be someone with her arms full...or her arms empty.

So, what's YOUR story? With Mother's Day coming up we thought it would be interesting to honour mothers by hearing some of the different ways you have become a mother [or are hoping to]. Do you have the story of the happy and busy Mom running her home with children underfoot? Do you have a story of someone who tried for months, or even years, to get pregnant before finally getting their miracle child(ren)? Do you have a story of adoption? Are you parents of twins - or even triplets? Would you be willing to share your story of miscarriage? Some stories are definitely more difficult to tell than others. And while we don't love the fact that there are heart-breaking stories out there, we want to honor those mothers too by allowing them to tell their story. And to give the chance for healing - either for the one telling the story, or for someone else who will be reading the story.

Your story can be about your journey leading up to pregnancy [or adoption]...or it can be about your labour & delivery experience. It can be about the pain of a miscarriage or the trials of fertility treatments. It can even be about those first few weeks and months at home after baby was born.

You can email your stories to info@tinytreehuggerdiapers.com with "MOTHERHOOD BLOG POST" in the subject line and we will choose a few to feature every week on the blog from now until Mother's Day. Posts will be published at our discretion. Every post sent to us [even those not published] will be entered into a draw for a $20 gift certificate to our shop. You can choose to use this gift certificate to splurge on yourself [which of course would be well deserved!] or you can choose to bless another mother with it.

**By emailing us your stories [and pictures] you are authorizing us to use them in full or in part either during this Mother's Day feature or sometime in the future.**