This past Mother’s Day, one of the speakers spoke about how her children all had another mother. For example, with her first daughter, a hospital intensive care (ICU) nurse held her baby and knitted her booties to wear when the only other thing she could wear was a diaper while in the isolette.

The speaker went on to tell about her children’s other mothers. Two of her children are adopted. As such, they both have natural mothers who gave them life. One also spent time in foster care. The speaker was able to give birth after adopting, but again, her baby spent over a month in ICU with many other women who took care of her child. She spoke of all the other mothers her children have had in Primary (children’s church class), Young Women’s (teenage girl church class) and all the different influences children have in different stages of their lives. Women around us contribute to our lives, they are other mothers to us.

It was a wonderful talk for a Mother’s Day — speaking to all women. We are all mothers as we contribute to the well being of children growing up around us.

Thank you to all the women in my life. I need your love and support to be who I am, and to help my children be who they need to be. It is especially applicable this time of year as so many children, young and old, go to school and are nutured by ‘other mothers’.

Few of us will reach our potential without the nurturing of both the mother who bore us and the mothers who bear with us. -Sister Sheri Dew

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I was putting dishes away today listening to the lyrics of a song that say “He knows your name, He knows who you are, each son and daughter, and every last star” and I was reminded of an experience that let me know that God knows exactly who I am, what I am doing, and what I need.

In August 2006, my husband and I were introduced to a woman who asked us to adopt and parent the twins she was carrying. We had been praying for a short wait in our adoption journey, and this was it! We knew who our babies were going to be, and they were due in just a month. We were ecstatic, excited and eager to meet the babies. We already felt connected to them – the birthmom didn’t know the sex of either baby, but we had a strong feeling that they were both boys, and that they were meant to be in our family.

We flew across the country in September to meet the birthmom, and help her in the last weeks of her pregnancy. Our first meeting was at a restaurant, and we got along with her, her daughter and her grandparents right away. Everything felt so comfortable and so right. When we took her to her doctors appointment on September 30th, we had no idea that the end of the day would end with the babies being born. The doctor had us take her straight from his office to the hospital. I sat with her for most of her labor, and we got to know each other very well. When it was time for our birthmom to be wheeled into the operating room for her C-section, I paced the halls nervously, waiting for word that everything was ok with all three of them.

Shortly, I found out that everything wasn’t just ok, it was perfect. I was called into the nursery to hold the sweet babies, both boys, just minutes after their birth. They were beautiful. The phrase “my heart was full” seems trite, but there is no other way to describe it. Late that night, my husband and I drove back to our hotel room, full of joy and thinking about names.

We visited the babies in the hospital over the next few days. On our last visit, the birthmom made sure we were coming back the next day with car seats – “you can’t make me take these babies home! They are your babies!” she reminded us.

So when we returned to the hospital that one last time, where the babies mother told us that she had changed her mind and no longer wanted to place them for adoption, we were heartbroken. Lost. Devestated. We fed them and loved them and held them and named them. And now they were gone. Not ours.

We returned to the hotel. I was a sick, sobbing mess. I was angry and hurt and sad and scared and upset. Finally I fell to my knees, next to my husband, and we prayed; begged the Lord for comfort. A few minutes after we closed our prayer I was lying alone on the hotel bed, trying to compose myself. I heard words in my head, and it took me a little while to figure out that they were the words of a hymn that the Lord was putting in my mind to comfort me.

The hymn is How Firm a Foundation (page 85) and the words were these, from verses 3 and 4:

Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,
For I am they God and will still give thee aid.
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand

When through the deep waters I call thee to go.
The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o’erflow,
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee they deepest distress

With those words I was able to pull myself together, feel some comfort and do what needed to be done.

Fast foward two years. The birthday of our not-sons fell on a Sunday that year. I had been thinking about them for the month leading up to the day, even more than I did normally. That morning, I woke up, almost hesitant to go to church because I was worried that I would fall apart crying with sadness and embarass myself. I prayed that I would have the strength to get through the day. I got myself and my children dressed, in the car, and we left for church.

I sat down just in time for church to start, and when the organ started playing the opening hymn, I lost it. It was How Firm a Foundation, the same hymn that was an answer to my prayers two years ago that day, the hymn that gave me more comfort and peace than anything as I walked through the hardest trial in my life.

Coincidence? Not a chance. God knows me. He knew what I needed when the words to that hymn were put into my mind the first time on that September day. He knew what I needed two years later – not just continued peace, but the knowledge that God knows me and what I need.

He knows you, too.

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We have a song that we teach our kids called “I Love to See the Temple.” It is a simple song that teaches the kids that going to temple is a good thing and it teaches them what we do there ~ we learn, we pray, we feel the spirit and we seal our families together forever.

Being a busy mom of three young children, I don’t get to attend the temple as often as I would like. Where we are, we live about forty-five minutes from a temple. On a day this spring, I took my daughter (age 6) and one son (age 3) to a couple stores in that area, so we stopped to wander the grounds of the temple.

On that cool, overcast spring morning I noticed that as soon as we stepped onto the grounds we felt peace. Serenity seemed to envelope us. Calmness filled us. We admired the flowers, the fountain, the beautiful stone and wood work, the Angel Moroni.

I was able to talk with my children about when my husband and I were married in the temple (a different one than we were visiting), and I was able to tell my daughter (who was adopted) about when she was sealed to our family forever. We were able to talk about the blessing of having an eternal family.

My daughter and I talked about how someday she may choose to be married in this temple.

I was able to tell my daughter how much the temple means to me and how much I love going when I have the chance. I was able to tell her how when I go I feel peace and how I have had my prayers answered when there.

On that day, I realized that even though I don’t always have the time to go into the temple, I can feel close to the Lord and feel the peace of the temple by going to grounds and soaking in the spirit there. Today, I encourage you to do the same. Take the kids, or go by yourself, sit on the grass and ponder anything weighing on you. Pray for an answer. Feel the peace. And enjoy your day.

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My name is Richa, and I was born in Calcutta, India.

When I was 9 months old, I was adopted and moved to the United States. The rest of my siblings were all adopted, too [two are from Korea, two from the Phillipines, and two from Pennsylvania (USA)]. I think that it is the coolest thing!

I have been a member of the Mormon Church my entire life. Currently, I am in school majoring in Elementary Education and Music. My goal is to become a teacher and be an influence to children. At church, I have two callings right now: the Young Single Adult Representative [helping with spiritual and social gatherings for young single adults ages 18-20] and a Relief Society Enrichment board member.

I love to read and watch movies; if I am not doing one, I am doing the other. My talents include violin, piano, writing, and cooking.

I love being a Mormon Woman because even though the world can be a bad place sometimes and bad things happen, I am comforted by the thought that God is up there watching over me and that He is on my side.

For example, there was a time, about two-and-a-half years ago, when a special someone in my life decided to call it quits with our relationship. I was devastated, but with the support of my family and the love of God, I realized that just because bad things happen –even though I may be doing everything in my life right– it doesn’t mean that God hates me. He loves me and wants me to learn from the experiences I have. I knew that everything would be okay and that God did really love me and wanted to protect me from something that may have been ten times worse in the future.

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For more Portraits of Mormon Women, please click here.

Related topics: adversity/trials, church callings, Relief Society, Enrichment,

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