Happy Mother’s Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying mother’s day with all their favorite people today. I was reading this story about the special way actress Nia Vardalos became a mother and I thought it would be a lovely one to share with you guys on this special day.

Not everyone becomes a mother in the traditional sense. My Big Fat Greek Wedding star Nia Vardalos and her husband Ian Gomez have a great reason to celebrate this year. The couple recently became parents to a 3-year-old little girl through adoption.

After years of wanting to be parents, my husband and I were given 14 hours notice … then a little girl walked into our house, said Vardalos in an exclusive interview with People Magazine.

Trying to adopt had been a long and frustrating process. But, when we connected with an American Foster Family Agency, it happened very quickly. One night, the phone rang – the social worker told me we’d been “matched” with a 3-year-old girl.

The first time parent’s didn’t know how to adapt from being alone one day to having a preschooler the next.

She arrived without an instruction manual. I didn’t know if she had a sleep schedule, food allergies – there wasn’t even a note pinned to her shirt. She just walked in and looked up at me, like “got lunch?”

This quote made me laugh the most. I am not a parent yet but this is how I imagine I would feel the day I become a mother. Regardless of how we get there it seems the worries are the same.

Slowly but surely the bond between mother and daughter took over.

We got to know each other: we blew bubbles in the backyard, drew with sidewalk chalk, threw the ball for our dog, (who looked up at her, like “dibs on the big bed.”)

Together, we decorated her new bedroom – arranging white furniture, laying out a pink rug, messily peeling and sticking purple flower decals on the walls.

I was delighted by her: Every facial expression, every tantrum, every small thing she did was fascinating and fantastic. Mornings were now a flurry of juice spilling, tiny clothes washing and frenzied kid-chasing. It was thrilling chaos.

Their family and friends shared in the happiness of the couple. One day her priest asked to bless their new daughter.

The words and ceremony were a beautiful acknowledgment that some families are created in different ways, but are still in every way, a family.

The priest said the words, “Today you have given birth to your daughter,” and I began to cry. It all poured out. All the grief, all the anger, all the angst at the difficult and long journey to parenthood. And that outpouring of tears was quickly followed by a peaceful gratefulness.

I held my daughter in my arms and thanked God for bringing her to me. If the standard route of creating a family had worked for me, I wouldn’t have met this child. And I needed to know her. I needed to be her mother. And in that moment, I knew why it had all happened this way: So I could meet this little girl. She is, in every way, my daughter.

I’m so happy for Nia and her husband Ian and for this amazing blessing they have been given. I wish Nia and all mother’s out there a wonderful day!