A long-awaited first Mother's Day

It's a day Karen Lester never thought she would see come: Sunday will be her first Mother's Day.

Lester struggled for years with infertility. It was only in December that her baby was finally born — via her sister as a gestational surrogate.

• My bun, her oven: St. John's woman becomes mom, thanks to sister

"We tried for almost 10 years to get pregnant on our own, and nothing worked," Lester said.

"We went to Calgary for IVF, and Ottawa ... we tried some things locally, anything that we could do, and nothing worked. So my sister Lisa offered, and last year, she carried Eva for us."

Eva was born Dec. 14.

While she is biologically Karen and her husband Chris's child, Eva was implanted in the womb of Karen's sister, Lisa.

"I'm considered an adoptive mother, so Chris and I had to go through the whole process of actually adopting from Lisa. There's a whole court process that's not for the faint of heart," Lester said.

Being considered an adoptive mother means Karen receives only 35 weeks of maternity benefits, as opposed to 52.

"I don't receive the full year of benefits. Now, I am taking the full year off to be with her, but there are some parents out there in our situation that can't afford to do that, and I think that's really sad," she said.

'They call her the CBC baby'

Karen's advice to anyone in her former situation is to redefine what family looks like.

"It doesn't have to be 'get married have kids right away, do everything naturally,' it's about having the family and that can look a million different ways — from surrogacy to IVF to adoption. So just redefine what that looks like, and have that as your goal," Lester said.

This year has already been redefined for Lester since baby Eva came home, and like any new mother, she said the first few months have been "chaos."

"It's been amazing … it's what everyone says it's going to be. It's love like no other … it's busy, it's the hardest job, it's all the cliché​s. I can use them all," Lester said.

Cliché​s might describe some aspects of motherhood, but baby Eva's arrival was anything but.

"They call her the CBC baby," Lester said. "There's been a lot of people who have reached out to us and said that we inspired them, and that they've been going through the same struggles that we went through."

Lester is grateful for her sister's contribution to her family and hopes their story inspires other families.

"It's a great story to tell," Lester said. "This gift is amazing, [and] hopefully inspires other people to think about families differently and reach out to help other people."

"It was just something I knew was meant to happen." 

Karen will celebrate her first Mother's Day on Sunday, after a decade of waiting.

"It's bittersweet … it's one of those holidays, I guess, that it's a reminder. Christmasses, baby showers … reminders of what we couldn't make happen ourselves," said Lester.

"So this one's gonna be extra special."