I’m a mother.

I’m still processing this fact, two months after I actually became one. It’s still a little bit surreal to me. I look at Ethan and I know he’s mine. I know he grew inside me, kicked me, rolled around in me, and emerged from my belly. I know all this, and yet I still can’t believe it sometimes. When I think of where I was this time last year – a newlywed packing to drive to Arkansas for a summer of Shakespeare – it seems a world away.

I don’t really have any deep insights or pearls of wisdom to share on this day, my first Mother’s Day as a mother. All I have to say is that I love my son. I love him more than I expected, and I expected to love him more than anything in the world. He makes me smile, he makes me cry tears of joy (okay, and sometimes just tears), and he makes me proud to be who I am. I am eternally grateful to my husband, my wonderful Adam, who helped create our beautiful boy and who is an incredible father. It is a rare man who gets up more than his wife in the middle of the night to tend to their crying baby - without even being asked. I am not unaware of the rare and bountiful luck I have been blessed with from whatever powers the universe, and I am going to do everything I can to be the best mother I can be.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mother, my grandmother, my mother-in-law, my March Mommies, and to every other mother I know! I am proud and grateful to be joining you.