Watching Them Bloom: What This Gala Means to Me

Let me get personal with you for a minute.

In a few weeks, we're putting on a black-tie premiere. Red carpet. Lights. The whole thing. And people keep asking me if I'm excited about the gala.

Excited isn't the word.

When I look at September 10, I'm not just seeing an event. I'm seeing faces. I'm seeing ten women I've watched walk through some of the hardest, tenderest, most invisible months of their lives. I'm seeing where they started, and I'm seeing where they are now. And if that doesn't move you, I don't know what will.

Let me tell you what this program really is.

The MAHA Project isn't a class you sign up for and forget. It's a village that shows up. It's the checking in. It's the "how are you really." It's the mama who couldn't see her way through those first weeks, and the circle of women who reminded her she wasn't doing it alone. That's the work. That's the whole thing.

These ten mothers? They did it. They showed up for themselves. They let us in. They grew.

That's why this gala matters to me. It's not a party. It's a graduation. It's us standing up in front of the whole community and saying, look at these women. Look at what they've done. Look at what happens when a mother is held instead of left to figure it out on her own.

I've watched them cry. I've watched them laugh. I've watched them meet each other's babies and become the kind of friends who text at 2am. I've watched them go from surviving to standing tall. And on September 10, I get to watch them walk a red carpet like the stars they've always been.

So no, excited isn't the word.

Honored is the word. Proud is the word. Grateful is the word.

Come stand with us. Come see what this community can do when we decide no mother walks alone. Come celebrate these ten women who reminded me, again, why I do this work at all.

This is the part where we come to do everything, and have all the answers for once. I'll see you on the red carpet.

With all my love, Bree