Two years ago on Mother’s Day we were gearing up for our very first IVF.  How cute we were.  So optimistic!  So STUPIDLY optimistic!  Preparing for IVF on Mother’s Day – isn’t that just precious?

One year ago we were feeling like veterans, getting ready for our FET after The Year From Hell.  But again, we were optimistic!

This year, I’m 21+ weeks pregnant with a healthy baby boy.  His scans are coming back great, my scans – even being AMA – are coming back good.  We’re optimistic.

And aware of how lucky we are that we still have the capability for being optimistic.

And so blessedly lucky that we made this choice as easily as we did – to move on, to head in the ‘most likely to end up with a live baby’ direction.  So lucky that everything we’ve been through has not, after all, scarred us so much that we cannot enjoy the fact that we’re doing it, living the dream, on our way to parenthood together.

For me, Mother’s Day has always been for – of course – celebrating my own wonderful, amazing mother.  For taking a step back and consciously appreciating the amazing woman who bore and raised me.  And for the last many years it’s been about looking back more than anything else, reflecting on the childhood she gave me, the advantages she made sure I had, the love that I always felt completely surrounded and protected by.

But Mother’s Day has a different meaning for me now.  Today it’s also a celebration of the future.  Of possibilities and of things I cannot yet begin to imagine.  It’s about hoping I do half as good a job as my own mother did.  And it’s also about the gift that MsDonorFantastica gave us.  Not ready to be a mother herself, but understanding how precious young eggs are in the baby-makin’ game; in no way is she the mother of my child, but she made it possible for me to be here.

To be here celebrating Mother’s Day with one hand resting lightly on my belly.  Talking to my baby.

Optimistically looking into the future.