Mothers

**My mother with all her daughters. Hannah's graduation. 2007**

Becoming a mother has changed my life. I get a lot less sleep. I get vomit and spit on everything I wear. I worry about my son on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis. I obsessively check on him when he's asleep. The instant love I had for Moses surprised me. We almost got hit by a car while walking home from the grocery store the other day. My heart raced for almost an hour. I get ridiculously excited every time he smiles- it melts my heart. I don't think I have stopped praying since Moses was born. I don't want to mess this up. This experience has strengthened my testimony and reaffirmed to me that I am doing what I was meant to do.

Becoming a mother has made me love and appreciate my own mother more. Mom, thank you for everything that you did for me, for each of us. Thank you for making us breakfast in bed every year for our birthdays. Thank you for making me a new dress each year for christmas. Thank you for encouraging me to continue my education. Thank you for dealing patiently with all my teenage drama. Thank you for making me lunch everyday for school (even though more than once it was just two slices of bread. I remember calling you once to complain about that. You just told me to suck it up and enjoy the bread, that you had forgotten to put anything in between). Thank you for sharing your love of reading with me. Thank you for always knowing when something was wrong (even when we are literally countries apart) and calling me just to check in. Thank you for helping me learn to be a mother myself and for the wonderful example that you are of the true love that a mother has for her child. Happy Mother's Day.