Tonight I started putting together a book for Aram containing the letters and comments of support we received after the TIME cover came out. There are thousands of beautiful messages to sift through. I wanted to make sure that in the front there were the letters from parents who said the cover gave them strength to not hide the way they parent to their friends and family, or that they now have the courage to allow their child to self wean, or that they didn’t know what attachment parenting was before the cover came out and because of the cover they decided it is something that is right for their family. I also put in letters from formula feeding moms who thanked us for shedding light on breastfeeding past infancy (which all said they didn’t understand prior to the cover) while still holding true to doing what is right for your family. They understood that our purpose was to spread the message of tolerance and support to all mothers who parent in a healthy way.
I also started a book for Samuel with some of the most touching messages and letters from adoptive parents because the TIME cover led to us doing interviews where we speak candidly about adoptive breastfeeding, so we received several letters from adoptive parents. Some of the parents had just brought children home from various countries where breastfeeding past infancy is the cultural norm. They were having a hard time with transition and one way or another ended up breastfeeding their newly adopted children since they saw we had done it. There were amazing stories of families saying their children were soothed during this time of severe trauma, and were probably breastfed by caretakers up until the time they entered their care. We also received letters from parents waiting for the referral of their adopted child(ren) and didn’t know that adoptive breastfeeding was possible. One mother already has started the process of induced lactation and said if we never spoke out she would have never known this was a possibility for her family.
I want my children to know we played a very small part in something much bigger than ourselves, but as small as it was, we still did something positive for others, and they should be so proud of how they helped so many families.
