This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they'll never see. And the mothers who took
those babies and made them homes.

For all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes. And all the
mothers who DON'T.

What makes a good mother anyway? Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips? The ability to nurse
a baby, fry a chicken, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time?

Or is it heart?

Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son 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 need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a school
shooting, a fire, a car accident, a baby dying?

I think so.

So this is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about making
babies. And for all the mothers who wanted to but just couldn't.. This is for reading "Goodnight
Moon" twice a night for a year. And then reading it again "just one more time".

This is for all the mothers who mess up. Who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them
in despair and stomp their feet like a tired 2 year old who wants ice cream before dinner.

This is for all the mothers who taught their daughters to tie their shoelaces before they started
school.

And for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead. For all the mothers who bite their
lips-sometimes until they bleed-when their 14 year old dyes his hair green. Who lock themselves
in the bathroom when babies keep crying and wont stop.

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

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

This is for all mothers who heads turn automatically when a little voice calls "Mom?' in a crowd,
even though they know their own offspring are at home. This is for mothers who put pinwheels
and teddy bears on their children's graves.

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

This is for all the mothers who sent their sons to school with stomachaches, 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 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. So hang in there.

Better luck next year, I'll be rooting for you!!

---- author unknown
She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
Proverbs 31:27