February 2012 

A Valentine's Day master class, an author visit, and a college fair  

January 2012 

How is Free Minds changing lives through the humanities?  

December 2011 

"You gotta keep going to school till you're old and old and old!"  

No one really ever bragged on me except for when they were telling somebody about how well-mannered and behaved my two children were. I raised them in the same way that I was raised by my mom and grandmother, that old school, you-KNOW-I-don't-play, church-every-Sunday, belt-to-the-behind kind of way. Motherhood was what I was really good at and pretty much the only thing that I did. The excitement of it was wearing thin, and there was no way that I was willing to birth another one of those little creatures for the third time, or so I thought. One year later my fiancé is standing over my third child about to give him his first haircut. I'm trying my hardest not to cry as this baby turns into a little dude person right before my eyes.

Memories of the past twenty months flood my mind and I think of how far we've come: from his first month of life being spent in the neonatal intensive care unit to the staph infection of my C-section incision. As I behold the face of my little Buddha, I can't help but to think how I would have terminated the pregnancy if I had known that day back in December. The new little light in my life would not have been; he is here for a reason. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of how the events before, during, and after his birth have made me a stronger more compassionate person and mother. Every doctor visit, every cramp, every stitch, every stretch mark, and all the pain was worth it. As hard as it was, I wouldn't change a thing about it. I have a new outlook of what it means to be a mother that makes me appreciate each and every one of my children that much more.