To the Mamas

Here’s to the mama in awe and in love with her new baby, snuggled against her chest and breathing soft downy breaths against her skin. Here’s to the mama whose baby never was, whose longing never ended, whose heart still yearns. Here’s to the mama who conceived her baby with ease and joy, standing in the strength and awe of what her body could do. Here’s to the mama whose journey to motherhood was fraught with struggle and uncertainty, who month by month wept over broken hopes until at last she held her baby close. Here’s to the mama who found her baby not through body but by heart, discovering that the “how” of the arrival matters nothing compared to the arrival itself. Here’s to the mama whose children are not her own but whose heart claims them still.

Here’s to the mama with a pack of littles, running and jumping and giggling and crying like banshees around the house and around her heart. Here’s to the mama blessed with one. Here’s to the mama surprised by the gift of her child. Here’s to the mama who cries at the gift. Here’s to the mama who’s just tired.

Here’s to the mama whose children are blessed with the health and wholeness she always wanted for them. Here’s to the mama whose world is filled with challenge for her children but who has discovered the gifts those challenges bring. Here’s to the mama for whom health in her child is a hope and a dream, whose days are filled with fear and prayer, who longs to get to an imagined other side.

Here’s to the mama celebrating with her mate the blessing of their child. Here’s to the mama going it alone, wistful for a partner with whom to share the struggles and the blessings. Here’s to the mama in grief for her partner, worried that she’s enough and that her kids will be okay.

Here’s to the mama who stands in the strength of a mighty fortress of women, fortified by the love and guidance of her own mother and the mountain of women who hold her close. Here’s to the mama standing in her own strength, afraid she can’t do it but proving every day she’s a force to be reckoned with. Here’s to the motherless mama who longs for her mother’s wisdom but discovers again and again that her mother lives on in her.

Here’s to the mama with kids who once followed her everywhere, but who are now fully steeped in lives of their own and have little time for their mom. Here’s to the mama whose babies are grown and have moved on from her home but not from her heart. Here’s to the mama disconnected from her child, who has only her memory and longing. Here’s to the mama whose child has gone from this world, who lives every day the unimaginable and must discover what it is to remain a mom even so. Here’s to the mama she is and always will be.

Here’s to the mama who laughs. Here’s to the mama who cries. Here’s to the mama who hopes. Here’s to the mama who yearns.

Here’s to you, mama. Here’s to you.