x @suta_bombay “Motherhood cannot come with a vision board because they say when you make plans, God laughs! And I have lived that.” shares @pooja_and_norah ❤️ “I had a miscarriage, and then I was pregnant with Nora. I was on complete bed rest because I had an incompetent cervix. Nora was born prematurely in the seventh month. We didn’t know she had Down syndrome — it was a birth diagnosis. She shattered every belief I had before her. I call her my God, like how they have Before Christ and After Christ; for me, it’s Before Nora and After Nora because life has changed that much. A new person was born. Everything I held important felt negligible. Maybe I needed that. I believe parents are chosen by the child. Maybe she knew I needed her. In the beginning, we were shocked. I went through the same emotions — why me, why is everyone’s life normal and mine not? I started to question God, but slowly, I started seeing life differently. I had the darkest thoughts, and she must have witnessed all of them, yet all I got was love. She taught me unconditional love. I tried to stay away from her, but as an anchor to our relationship, she built the connection. She’s most definitely stronger than me. I needed to learn, and she came to teach. I went into therapy and sought support from my family, allowing myself to feel the dark, taking one day at a time. Slowly, it turned into gratitude, then joy. I’d ask her for forgiveness for not understanding. She’s more patient with me than I’ve been with her. Her emotional maturity is her excellence. So, I got the opportunity to redefine life and go into a problem-solving mode. There is nothing that you know; differences are just that – differences. And that is why there is nothing alike around you. The key is acceptance — that this is a different life. She has her differences; that is what she brings into my life and the world. She’s here to make that change. There’s no map for this. Motherhood is messy and imperfect. You can’t put it in a box. You live it day by day. It’s been a metamorphosis for me. I find my strength in vulnerability. But now I know: “When you know better, you do better.”“