Brooke M

Before delivering, I often worried about how I would react when I first met my son. Would I have that overwhelming sense of love that so many other mothers described? Or would he feel like a tiny stranger in my arms? As it turned out, our first meeting was a fearful one, as I watched his lips turn purple and a nurse sprint with him out of the room. Those following days in the NICU, watching him learn to breathe, were painful and full of anxiety, but they also eased all the doubts I ever felt about motherhood and meeting my child: I loved this mysterious, unknowable human being as an extension of myself. I've donated to the Mother's Day Project since its inception and never anticipated I'd one day have a child in the NICU myself. This year, I donate in honor of these hard, early introductions to parenting in the NICU, different than most mothers probably imagined, but still defined by endless love.