Throughout my life, I've never been one to get caught up in labeling my mother as the best mother in the world and that's only because I think there's a law against attempting to place a label on an angel. Often times I look back on my life and wonder how in the world I was given such a loving individual whom I could call mom.

I can remember, as if it were just yesterday, my mother giving me a huge kiss on the cheek immediately after the buzzer sounded in my first junior high school basketball game; she made a beeline from where she was sitting in the stands and she tracked me down and kissed me in front of all of my friends. The kisses eventually turned to hugs at the end of every sporting game (football/basketball) and as I sit here today and think about those times, I believe I excelled simply due to the fact I could see her joy in watching me zip up and down the court and or field.

Since the day I can remember, my first black and white thought, my mother has worked endlessly to provide for my siblings and me. I don't come from a broken home, however my mother is the glue that has kept us together and without her patience and love we would have been fragmented long ago.

Thank you smiling, singing, laughing, sacrificing your needs/wants for ours and also thank you for instilling that sense of HOPE in our lives that we can do anything.