When I was nineteen I had the amazing and most beautiful experience, I became a mother.  I had no way of knowing how this fact would forever change me.  I did not know the capacity my heart held to love, give, fear, worry, or feel.  I did not know that I would spend every moment of my years learning, failing, forgiving, hoping, believing and loving. I also choose to expand my hearts capacity to love four more times. Making me the mother of four of the worlds most amazing young men and one beautiful young lady.

There is nothing in this world that can prepare you for motherhood.  No one can explain to you what it will be like. Mothering is an experience and one that you will only know once you have had first hand encounters with a sleep deprived, gassy newborn, teething infant, a six month old with chicken pox, two spaghetti-o throwing up children. Smiles, laughter, howls, tears and tantrums.  A toddler who removes a diaper and smears you a mess to clean or a four year old who paints you a spaceship.  A sons first soccer game, a daughters first goodbye to a best friend.  These are so many of the encounters motherhood will give you to experience.  They are the experiences that mold us, grow us, change us, and define us.  Without her children a mother loses her identity.  They easily become the topic of any conversation. They are on her mind during the day and while she sleeps.  Her children are her everything they are why she does what she does and is who she is.

If we met in school then I am probably not the same person you knew then, nor am I the same person you may have known if you knew me with only one or two children in my early twenties.  And even if we just met this year I am probably not quite the same person you first met. The reason for this is that with each new day comes new experiences.  I am learning and growing, failing and winning.  I am ever changing to meet the needs of those around me and I am being educated daily on how to be the best mother I can possibly be.  To all you moms out there, keep striving, growing, changing, and failing you are doing an amazing job of the one most important job there is in this world and that is to be the best mother you can possibly be.  Cheers to the mamma’s, young, old, and in between. I commend you all and appreciate the sacrifices you make every day to raise your babies. Motherhood, aint it grand!