“I would get too attached — I would love them too much, I couldn’t ever let them go!” It’s a common response, when I’ve shared about the women who mother for now, the ones who stand in the gap. The ones who wait up late for a train, welcoming a little one in. The ones who cheer as they take their first steps, teach their first words, rock them through sleepless nights. The ones who hold vigil at a bedside after open heart surgery - dosing meds & worrying like mothers do... because a mother they are. The ones who mother a broken heart for months & years, teaching that little heart to know deep love - growing a heart that knows how to love in return. The ones who receive pictures of that baby’s forever family & point out each picture: “say mama! Say baba!”, preparing a little heart for the day that for now mother will hand that baby of hers off to the mother who will become that child’s forever. I can tell you right now, we love them too much. We get too attached. We let go & wipe tears & place little hands in that forever mama’s hands & we whisper to little hearts that they can trust - & we can trust that the bits of our hearts that break with goodbyes will travel on with those little hearts forever. Adoption is that beautiful & broken hallelujah: no erasing the loss that was & no replacing one story for the next. Adoption to me will always be the video of my dearest Lao Song introducing her Xuan Song boy she had loved & mothered to his forever mama, @mollieglasgow. . One brave heart, wrapped in the love of three mamas. The mama who gave him life. The mama who steps into the story & loves, at the cost of her own heart, until the forever mama comes to carry that brave little heart home - a literal tribe of mothers. Loving fully, knowing you will have to let go. Attaching completely, knowing you will hand that baby over to another. To stand & fight for hope in a for now place & then walk a child into their forever home is the bravest kind of love & the greatest kind of honor. They are heroes, every one. And so today, to the ayis at @lwb2003’s healing home & mamas who foster all around the world.. . ..to all the ones who get too attached — Well done.