This quote is from an email I received a few days before Mother’s Day. I modified it a bit, but it really made me get emotional over some of the moments I have already experienced as a mother, and things I have to look forward to! I recall my high school and college years trying to imagine myself in a successful career doing something I love at that “perfect” job. I also recall working that “perfect” job and longing for the days I would become a mother. Now I rock crying babies, wipe snotty noses, wipe very dirty bottoms, explain complicated things to a two-year –old such as breast feeding, spank bottoms, clean up many spills, sing a sick toddler to sleep, wipe away tears, put passies in mouths, bake birthday cakes, spend many dollars at the one-hour photo in Wal-mart, gain nearly fifty pounds in pregnancy, carry a kicking baby inside my belly, sacrifice a flat stomach and nice thighs for a cottage cheese body, and become a human milk machine . This is my successful career and the “perfect” job that I love doing.

I hope you love being a mommy as much as I do. It truly is the highest paid, most rewarding job in the world. Happy Mother’s Day!

“This is for the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up vomit saying, ‘It’s okay honey, Mommy’s here.’

Who have sat in rocking chairs for hours on end soothing crying babies who can’t be comforted.

This is for all the mothers who have spit-up in their hair and milk stains on their blouses and diapers in their purse.

This is for the mothers whose priceless art collections are hanging on their refrigerator doors.

And for all the mothers who froze their buns on metal bleachers at football or soccer games instead of watching from the warmth of their cars.

And that when their kids asked, ‘Did you see me, Mom?’ they could say, ‘Of course, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,’ and mean it.

This is for all the mothers who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair when they stomp their feet and scream for ice cream before dinner.

This is for all the mothers who go hungry, so their children can eat.

For all the mothers who read ‘Goodnight, Moon’ twice a night for a year. And then read it again. ‘Just one more time.’

This is for all the mothers who taught their children to tie their shoelaces before they started school. And for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead.

This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot.

This is for every mother whose head turns automatically when a little voice calls ‘Mom?’ in a crowd, even though they know their own offspring are at home — or even away at college ~or have their own families.

This is for all the mothers who sent their kids to school with stomach aches, assuring them they’d be just FINE once they got there, only to get calls from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick them up. Right away.

This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can’t find the words to reach them.

For all the mothers of the victims of recent school shootings, and the mothers of those who did the shooting.

For the mothers of the survivors, and the mothers who sat in front of their TVs in horror, hugging their child who just came home from school, safely.

This is for all the mothers who taught their children to be peaceful, and now pray they come home safely from a war.

What makes a good Mother anyway? Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips?

The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time?

Or is it in her heart?

Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time?

The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 A.M. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby?

The panic, years later, that comes again at 12 A.M. when you just want to hear their key in the door and know they are safe again in your home?

Or the need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a fire, a car accident, a child dying?

The emotions of motherhood are universal and so our thoughts are for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation… And mature mothers learning to let go.

For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers.

Single mothers and married mothers.

Mothers with money, mothers without.

This is for you all. For all of us…

Hang in there. In the end we can only do the best we can. Tell them every day that we love them. And pray and never stop being a mom.

‘Home is what catches you when you fall – and we all fall.’”

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!