To the Mom in Perpetual Waiting

I don't write this with a large gift in my hands nicely wrapped in platitudes & words meant to soothe. Things about doors closing & windows opening or never receiving more than we can handle. Because sometimes windows shatter. And it's impossible to open a bow-topped package while you're picking shards of glass out of your hands. 

So to the mothers in perpetual waiting-
I'm sorry you have glass in your hands & that the stinging won't cease. I'm sorry these days feel like a relentless sand hourglass, never empty, never finished. I'm sorry our culture insists that we keep up an image of perfection & that the Church often demands contentment.

You don't have to be perfect in your waiting. He's not asking you to. He conquered perfection so that we don't have to be.

You might be waiting for the sleepless nights to be over, moms of little ones & moms of children who've run away, alike.
Or you might be desperate for sleepless nights to begin, yearning to hold a child in your arms.
Maybe you're waiting for healing in your relationship with your mom or mother-in-law, for forgiveness & friendship.
Or you might be waiting for the grief to end, to see your grandma, mom, son, daughter...or baby that you never had the joy of knowing their gender, face-to-face.
Maybe it's not even your children, maybe it's regarding your spouse, awaiting restoration.
Waiting for a new normal with your body that birthed a child, yet you hardly feel comfortable in.  
Waiting on the adoption process.
Waiting for a diagnosis.
Waiting for the next paycheck.
Waiting for postpartum depression to lift.
Waiting for a father for your children.
Waiting for the cancer to be gone. 

You don't have to pretend like your Mother's Day is perfect, it's not – a day simultaneously composed of both joy & pain.
You don't have to hide behind a filtered photo or handprint art. And come Monday you don't have to hide behind the cubicle, number of likes on your Mother's Day photo, or pile of laundry.
You don't have to be perfect or a hot-mess, because you aren't. He defines you...while still knowing all of your quirks & idiosyncrasies, your struggles, & the exact reason why you're waiting. 

You don't have to hide in your waiting.

But that's why the veil tore, right? So we don't have to hide. So we don't have to wait alone.

Have a joyous & redemptive Mother's Day 🌼

*Photo by Michelle Bill