They sat around the living room in various stages of brokenness and healing. Two women had arrived that week, and another one came that morning before I arrived. Some have stayed through low times, angry times, and desperate times. Some are barely recognizable when I think back to their first days at the women’s shelter. Chapel started, and I asked the group, “Why is Mother’s Day so hard?” Murmurs poured across the room with words like, “passed away, shame, failure, abortion, infertility, abandonment, disowned.” You won’t find these themes on Hallmark cards, but it’s the very real experience of many …
