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A Reason to Celebrate by Lisa Calice In the May 2001 issue of Our Life, we published "Ukraine Adoption," Lisa Calice's heartwarming story about the joys and agonies of becoming a mother. Two years later, we are pleased to share with you the equally heartwarming sequel to this story. The author is a member of UNWLA Branch 115 in Detroit, Michigan. The author with her children - Olena, Vlady, and Leyna. As a very young child, I had an intuitive awareness that Mother's Day and Father's Day were very special. I have fond recollections of creating a "pet rock" for my dad and a macrame hanger for my mom to mark the two holidays, and remember as well "helping" my dad and two siblings prepare a Mother's Day breakfast-in-bed, which my mother enjoyed in spite of any shortcomings. The macaroni art projects, paintings, homemade greeting cards, and coupon booklets promising special chores, all had special sig nificance. After all, moms and dads were special peo ple and deserved to be honored. How simple it all was. Almost as natural as breathing. Many years later, when I married and looked forward to becoming a mother myself, Mother's Day was still a day to honor my mother. But it was also a day that filled me with hope of what was to come. I knew that it would soon be my turn to be a parent and share my life with a child or children of my own. As time went by, however, Mother's Day became a mile stone, marking each childless year as it passed. The grief and loss I felt were profound, but in retrospect, they helped me gain a valuable perspective that made me more appreciative of what I had and made me un derstand that motherhood and fatherhood are precious gifts. I learned, through not having a child, what an awesome honor and privilege it is to be responsible for a child and to love a child, whether or not I was the one who brought him or her into this world! The most humbling experience of being an adoptive parent is to be entrusted with the future of another mother's child. In my case, there are three beautiful young lives that remind me every day that this is the most important job I will ever have. And though I did not attain motherhood in the traditional manner, my role as a mother gives me many compel ling reasons to feel special and to celebrate Mother's Day. The first Mother's Day with my three children had a dream-like quality. It was a lovely spring day and I had been a mother for six whole months. My children were five, six, and seven at the time, and hav ing just emigrated from Ukraine half a year earlier, they had no idea what Mother's Day in America meant. As their adoptive mother, how could I have imagined what this day really meant, for me or for my children? My first mistake was in thinking that Mother's Day was my day. I could not have been more mistaken. 18 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ТРАВЕНЬ 2003 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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