Many times I’ve asked myself who is a mom?  And it took me many years to acknowledge that a mom is a state of mind, and not only a woman who has kids.

During those unbearable years of loss, I felt every bit the mother to my unborn child (yes, each and every one), before their tragic loss from our lives.  Sometimes, we had to deal with important life and death questions regarding our child.  So, was I less of a mother than someone who easily had a baby?  Who may have faced some lighter questions on her journey?

Then I think about all mothers everywhere.  I ask myself – What about grandmothers? What about mothers who have lost their children at an older age?  What about mothers of grown-up children, who don’t see them everyday anymore?  What about new types of families of every kind?

And what about fathers?  To this I have the ultimate answer my own father always gave us kids late at night, when we cried out for our mommy, and he showed up – “I’m also mommy.  I’m Mommy-Marshal.”

So to anyone out there being a mom, welcome.