Invisible Mothers

This Mother's Day,

we’ll give sweet cards,

make long-distance calls

and buy bunches and bunches of flowers.

Many mothers among us will be honoured and praised and cheered.

They deserve every bit of that, and a whole lot more.

But there are some women among us, also mothers,

 

who won’t receive cards, or calls, or flowers.

They won’t receive public praise or honor.

 

No one will stand and call them blessed.

These mothers are invisible.

They are the women who used to be mothers,

but lost their children

 

-- to death, to marital break-ups, to estrangement, to abduction.

They are the women who gave their hearts and lives to raising one or more children, as best they knew how...

but received rejection in return.

They are the women who tried to become mothers,

but were stymied by infertility, miscarriage, or "failed" adoption....or all three.

They are the women who gave birth before they were ready to become mothers...

and placed their child for adoption,

so their child would have a mother,

and some other woman would have a child.

They are the women who were unexpectedly pregnant and chose to abort their babies...

and have carried secret guilt and sorrow ever since.

They are the women who dreamed, expected, and longed to be married and have children,

but for whom God had other plans.

They are the women who quietly, lovingly, sacrificially mother other people’s children...

as aunts, as big sisters, as teachers, as caregivers, as medical practitioners...

but will never be called “mother”,

and long to hear that they're appreciated anyway.

They are the women who are all around us.

We see them every day.

We admire them.

We laugh with them.

We gladly receive what they do.

But somehow, on Mother’s Day,

we leave them in the shadows.

This Mother’s Day,

let's pray God will open our eyes and our hearts,

to see and to applaud,

the love, the sorrow and the sacrifice

                of all mothers...

 

even those who are invisible.