Dear Ellie Mae and Pearl Anne's Moms

I wonder if you remember filling out another piece of paper work after your darling girls were born.  I wonder if you ever think about your donation.  I often wonder you wonder about where the blood went.  It might be like donating blood.  The donor is thinking about a pin or a cookie.  The ultimate recipient is not on your mind.

As I sit here on Mother's Day marveling that I am still a Mom, I so want to thank you.  The only reason I am a Mom on May 13, 2012 is because of your gift.  Your forethought to give up the cells that lived in the cord between you and your daughter.  You nurtured and fed and loved your baby before she was born. When it was time to continue your journey outside of your body, you handed off that nurturing bunch of cell someone else.  Your nurturing and life giving continued.  I hope you find out someday what a difference this small act made.

I guess you have to think about it like a 2fer.  You gave birth to your daughters and passed that life on to mine. Those two little bags restored the life of my daughter.

I would love to send you a letter and some Fran's Chocolates and try someway to explain how grateful I am for the fact Mary-Elizabeth was here to bake shortbread and make a beautiful card.

 As you know the Mom club is a very special place. Membership is only granted to some lucky few.  Motherhood changes your life in a way that can not be explained.  Your life is never the same, it is hard, it is heartbreaking, it is simply painful.  But few would ever return to TBB (time before baby).  It takes years to realize the job is a life time job. A job that morphs every day.  Some times it keeping close, sometimes it is to stay away.  The job is to figure out when to do which.

While other's disagree, I have always felt that if your progeny are gone then you loose  your magic ring.   I don't think anyone would come ask for your gray hair back but it is inferred. I have faced lose not once but twice.  To have twice had to face the possibility has made me a bit hesitant to take anything for granted. It has made me more clingy and less concerned about somethings.  It has refocused me like a small child trying to incinerate a bug on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass.  But more than that, it has made so so grateful that the bug killers have such great giant magnifying equipment.

I can only hope and pray and beg the gods that your journey has been smooth.  That on this day where Mom's are brunched and coffeed and carded and flowered and ..... you are enjoying your lovely daughters as much as I have enjoyed and hope to enjoy mine. 

We are sort of related now and I hope to meet someday at a family reunion.

Love, Mary-Elizabeth Sierra Lanham's very grateful, thankful and blessed mom.