You only get one Mom in life (I've noticed), and mine is the best...and perhaps the most resilient. (As a kid, I always tried to test exactly how great she could be -- and how patient -- and she always rose the occasion.)

With the 500 word limit here, I cannot fully describe how much I am grateful to the universe for assigning my Mom to me.

But I am extremely grateful -- for both her and for my Dad -- every day of my life.

She is -- and always has been -- loving, supportive, and selfless. She taught me to be a good person, and she taught me to be someone I can live with (which is nice, considering I don't have a choice in the matter.) She led me to ways to enjoy life and to have fun, such as giving me a love of reading and music.

Though I think I can write (she and my Dad proofread about a million of my sentences, and helped me express myself), everything I could type here about her would seem clunky and inadequate.

So I'm giving her a heart.

I love you, Mom!