Instant Motherhood! Learning to lean into the challenge.

What do you do if the week before Mother’s Day, you get a phone call from your adopted son’s birth mom, announcing she is seven months pregnant and wants you to adopt the child? I recently had my 50th birthday! My son is 6. A six-year age difference between siblings is significant. Despite these numbers, this baby will be his blood relative. His older brother was adopted by another family, but he will be able to grow up with this sibling. We want that for him.

Motherhood is the greatest thing and the hardest thing

-Ricki Lake

After focusing on my son for the last six years, I was beginning to look toward the future. It felt like time to combine his needs and mine. I am setting up a nature school to offer a supplemental science course for homeschoolers in the area. My plan is to start introductory classes next month. It is not a small undertaking, and the plan gets exponentially bigger later in the year with a two-week-long outdoor nature curriculum for my son’s school. It is one of my passions, but the timing is not great for a new baby.

I have done a lot of introspection since that phone call. Motherhood IS a battle. I do not mean with your kids, but there are those days too. I mean it is a battle for your children. You are their warrior. You either give up, or you make it work. Moms do not give up when it comes to their kids. We should also fight for ourselves because that is a fight for our kids’ best interests. Stepping out of your comfort zone and letting your curiosity guide you does not mean completely throwing caution to the wind. We can all take a chance AND mitigate the level of risk involved. If we want to achieve our goals, feel personally fulfilled, and be the best mothers we can be, there will never be a perfect time. There will be bumps in the road, plans will suddenly change, and we can always find excuses not to. What sets us apart is the push to keep moving forward. It is not an easy road to travel. It IS, however, worth it.

Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws

-Barbara Kingsolver

The only thing I am more passionate about than my career is my family. My kid(s) light a fire in me that transcends my fear and self-doubt. It gives me the strength I did not know was possible, and it grows stronger every day. It is that strength and love that drives me. We need to use that strength to forge ahead. It will be the extra fuel when we run out. It will be the light that guides us. Those kids will be our reason to get up after we fall. Our unconditional love and incalculable strength are the honors bestowed upon us as mothers. We push out past our comfort zone and fight for a better world for our children.

If all goes well, and come August, our newest addition arrives, I will fight for a better future for both of my kids. I will protect and nurture them. I will move mountains for them. All my foster and adopted children, past and present, are the reason I do what I do. They are not an excuse not to. My kid(s) are my superpower.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Super Hero moms. Foster moms, Adopted moms, Bio mom’s you are a force to be reckoned with, and we celebrate you!