My cousin unfortunately passed away August 10, 2016 due to pneumonia. But she wrote this on Mothers Day and all I can say is, I hope I'm half the mother to my son that she was to her kids.

My entire life all I ever wanted was to be a mom. I have tried always to never forget to live in the moment with my kids and take a billion mental snapshots. Sure the house was a mess but there was no way I was missing out on that tea party with Tiara or the back of the couch hot wheel race with Sammy. I mean, when I am 80 which memory is going to mean more to me? How many hours of sleep I threw away to selfishly hoard quiet moments with just me and my babies, counting toes, smooching fingers, smelling those beautiful little heads. No pain I have ever gone through, including childbirth, can compare to the pain I felt listening to Tiara scream for me to save her when the doctors were popping her elbow back into place when she was too little to understand that they were helping her while I stood outside the door weeping and covering my ears to keep from running in and beating the hell out of the person hurting my baby. I have never in my life been so scared as when I woke up in the dead of night to a loud crash followed by Sammy's bloodcurdling scream only to find him in the kitchen with the cookie jar broken around him, a giant goose egg forming on his forehead, and his tonka dump truck slammed against the cabinet where it obviously flew out from under him when he attempted to use it to reach the cookies. I breathed a sigh of relief and knew he was going to be ok though when he informed me that he was just walking by and the cookie jar attacked him. Luckily, those moments were few and far between, far overshadowed by tickles, laughs, cuddles, l Love Yous, and just time. Time spent enjoying the hell out of them.

All the most important moments of my life are tied to my two babies. They aren't babies by any means anymore,Tiara is 22 and Sam 18. But every moment, every laugh, every tear is engraved in my memory to be flipped through like the worlds largest photo album or set of home movies whenever I get sad that my babies are grown and moving onto lives of their own. It helps that they have become adults that I am incredibly proud of in too many ways to even begin to list. Saying I love them feels pitifully insignificant. They are my heart, my soul, my everything....Yeah, being a mom is everything I ever hoped and dreamed it would be and more.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!