Author's Note

Before I was a mother, I have always been a writer. But I never planned to write at length about my journey though motherhood and adoption. It began with a single essay in 1995 and then editors began inviting me to write a series of feature articles, and pen monthly columns and my readership grew. I'm the author of two memoirs, a contributor to 15 books and my essays are widely anthologized and appear in literary journals. 

 

I'm well into grandmotherhood now and I'm leaving a trail of my motherhood footprints behind.  

When I began assembling a collection of my previously published articles to include here, I found that each one begged for revision. A number of my feature articles were too magazine-y in tone and needed to be reshaped into essay. Other pieces, when further examined with my poet’s eye, had become too pretentious and gave off the full-bodied notion that as a mother I had things all figured out, which of course I don’t. I also contemplated my gloomy stories. Although I'm often remembered for difficulties I've faced, I want it to go down in history that there has also been great joy within my journey through motherhood. However, today as a mother and grandmother my life in no way resembles what I had hoped for, or expected it to be, and yet I am deeply thankful for where this journey has led me. I also enjoy seeing how my perspective has evolved and changed over the past four decades. 

 

Thank you to the editors where these essays were first published.