Today Is About Honor

May 28, 2014

Dear moms,

It's funny sitting here today at your wedding. As a 26 year old woman, my weekends are filled with friends engagement parties, bachelorette trips, and weddings. They are exciting new chapters in the lives of my friends and their significant others. Today does not feel like we're celebrating a new chapter in your lives. Rather, it feels like we're celebrating the many chapters that have shaped your relationship, my childhood, and this family.

Today you'll say your vows and we'll be witness to the official, legal marriage between two women. To me, you have been married for 20 years. You have loved each other through sickness, food allergies, and health. You have loved each other through good times and bad, through joy and sorrow. Twenty years ago, our two families became one. I gained three new sisters, and Marian's girls gained two new brothers and one more sister. We had meals together, went camping together, shared bedrooms, moved houses, wrestled, fought, cried and learned to love each other.

That is not to say it was without challenge. The world was not as friendly towards gay people as they are today. The world was not as welcoming to children of gay parents as they are today. There were bullies, and judgments, and ostracizing . There were accusations, and fear. There was ignorance and insecurity.

Today is not about starting a new chapter in your lives. Today is about honor. It’s about honoring the family you built when the world told you no. Today is about honoring the adversity we went through as a family. Today is about honoring the strength we've built as a result of that adversity. Most important, today is about honoring the incredible love between my mom and Marian that has endured throughout the years, and grown into an incredible modern love story, traditional in that you complete each other in every way. Today, it's not that you stand there in front of loved ones and proclaim, "I do". Today, you stand there in front of loved ones and say, "we still do".

I'd like to stand here and say with you, I still do too. Thank you for teaching me that easy isn’t always right, and that true love really does conquer all.

Love always,
Claire