Gabrielle Union Expressed Why Mother’s Day Is a “Challenging” Day to Celebrate

Pascal Le Segretain / Staff, Getty Images

For Gabrielle Union, Mother's Day is a time to reflect on her journey to motherhood, which came with a lot of confusion, pain, and upset. Now a mom to two-year-old daughter Kaavia James, whom she shares with husband Dwyane Wade, and step-mom to Wade's children Zaya, Zaire, and Xavier, and his nephew, Dahveon, Union understands that motherhood comes in many forms, and no one form of being a mom is greater than another.

"My journey to motherhood was long, arduous and at many times extremely painful," Union, who revealed in her 2017 memoir, We're Going To Need More Wine, that she suffered eight miscarriages before having Kaavia via surrogate, wrote in a May 9th Instagram post. "Mother's Day will always be a challenging day to celebrate for me. I know I'm not alone in this feeling."

"For many reasons, so many of us have a rough time today and to these good people, I send all my love, light and compassion," she continued. "To all the Moms, Stepmoms, Bonus Mom's, Folks who Mother those that need it, Grandma's, House Mothers, I celebrate you today and everyday. Be good to yourselves."

"You've shown the world that there's more than one way to be a Mother," Wade wrote in his own Instagram caption dedicated to Union on Mother's Day. "Thank you for having the patience and the willingness to learn how to love us. Thank you for allowing us to love you. Thank you for always being with the shits, thank you for always being ready for the antics, thank you for the teaching, the laughter, the sexiness, the coolness, the realness!"

He continued, "We love you @gabunion Happy Mother's Day."

"Motherhood" is a term that means so many things to so many different people, and we, like Union, celebrate everyone who falls under the wide umbrella term of "mom."