I love being a mom, and I love my mother, but Mother’s Day is hard for me. I had so many Mother’s Days single and longing-to-be-married-with-children. So many Mother’s Days my church (accidentally, I’m sure) reinforced a hurtful message that as a non-mother I was somehow less of a woman, less worthy of celebration. I know women who’ve chosen not to be mothers, and I know many who have lost their mothers. And I love so many women who are bearing up under the pain of infertility and pregnancy loss.

It’s hard for me to celebrate a day that is exclusively for some women and not others, and that for many, makes hard things harder.

So a few years ago, I decided to intentionally celebrate all the women in my life on this day. In that spirit, here is a Mother’s Day message for all the women in my life: Read more