"You spent years becoming who you are, and I take nearly full credit for that. You make me so proud to be your mom."

When I was seven, my mom brought my baby brother home, two and a half years after she had already gifted me with my hellion of a little sister. I wondered how she did it, how she gave three monsters so much love with such unchanging heart.

Then I watched throughout the rest of my childhood as people would come and go through our house, more often than not it seemed, someone was always crashing on the couch or staying with us for a little while. Every time anyone was in a time of need, they would call Mom, and Mom would always do everything she could to make that person's life easier and help them out of the situation they were in.

She may have ranted, cussed and raved as she hung up the phone, but we would then drive across town to help out whoever needed whatever. But somehow...when it was Mom who needed someone or something, people turned away or didn't answer their phones.

As a child, I thought this is just what people did, this is what it was like. You did for others and it was okay if they didn't do for you because at least you knew the people you love and care for are safe. The older I got, I became angry with it. I saw that other people didn't have each other's back the way Mom did with everyone else, and I would go to the ends of the Earth for my friends but they wouldn't always do the same for me. T

he more I realized this wasn't how things were supposed to be and my mother is a woman with a heart of gold, more than that, she has a servant's heart and I am thankful every single day that she taught me to be the exact same way.

Now that I'm nearly a full-fledged adult, it doesn't make me angry. I know that we are a rarity. My mother's servant heart is the reason I do what I do, love the way I do and work as hard as I do. I know that I won't always be reprimanded for my work and often it'll go unrecognized but seeing the product of what me helping someone can do is amazing.

"A lot of the times, Lex...you'll just have to accept that other people's happiness has to be your happiness too."