Happy Mother’s Day, Tracie P!

Just like me, you’ll never forget that photo, I’m sure. It was taken by a friend of ours on the occasion of Parker Elementary’s second flash mob concert, just a few weeks into the stay at home/work safe order in our city.

It was one of the scariest moments of our 12 years together. Was our community safe? Were our family and friends across the nation and the world going to be okay? What challenges would our own family face in the months that lay ahead? We’re still asking ourselves those questions.

But every day, like the morning of that concert, you get out of bed with a ready smile and hug for our girls, a new art or music project to keep them engaged, a special recipe to make our mealtimes colorful, and a coffee cup full of patience and tenderness for sometimes teary daughters and their often weary father.

Every day since the whole world changed, you have taught Georgia and Lila Jane — and me — about resilience. You’ve shown us how strength through hope, even in the face of uncertainty’s behemoth, is something we must never abandon as we carve out our new life in a world coming apart at its seams.

When we first met, I knew early on — we both knew — that we could build a life and a family together (remember how scary times were back then, dating in the thick of the financial crisis?). But neither of us could have imagined that we would be raising a family during a global pandemic. Today, on this Mother’s Day 2020, I can only thank my lucky stars to have a woman like you as my partner. Our daughters are blessed by your grace.

I love you, we love you with all our hearts. Happy Mother’s Day.