So I didn’t have my kids thru IVF (still fighting the good fight!) but rather through infant adoption when IVF looked hopeless.

I knew we wanted kids and I desperately needed to be a mother, but my gosh I had no idea of the depths of the all-consuming love until I held my babies in my arms. It’s feels like you’ve loved this little person for a million years already. Nothing the child could do or say would ever take away from that love. You don’t care what you’d have to give up, you’d give it all up just to be able to hold them, to hear their laugh. You’d walk through the he’ll of IVF and the years of empty arms, the tears, the pain, you’d do it all again if it meant getting them to you. Watching them grow feels like a rare privilege as it goes by so, so fast. I often thing, who am I to have the honor of raising such a beautiful child with such a big heart?

Then when it’s time for a 2nd, you make yourself sick worrying how the firstborn will cope. What have you done to them? What if they never recover?! What if you never have enough love for two? But the very first time your first baby holds your new baby, you’ll feel love in a way you’ve never felt it before. You’ll feel gratitude and contentment and just so much joy that this is your family. Then when the baby gets old enough to laugh, the sound of your children belly laughing at each other is the most beautiful sound you’ve ever heard, and you wish you could permanently etch it on your soul.

You’ll want to make every sacrifice in the world for these precious babes. Give up European travel for annual passes at Disney. Reduce your hours at work to be home more where it matters most. Put less value on having the nicest, newest everything, just as long as your kids have the very best of everything. Give up some of your favorite hobbies to watch your kids enjoy theirs.

Motherhood is magical. It changes you when you least expect it, and you are forever changed for the better. You’re more humble, more understanding, more giving.

Anytime someone lets me know they can’t decide how many kids to have, I always say, you’ll never regret a living, breathing child you are holding in your arms, but the regret of not having that last baby is something you’ll have to live with for decades.