Who has been impactful in your journey as a mother? What lessons do you carry with you and share often through motherhood?

I have to give credit to my mother. She has always taught me that no matter how hard things seem to be at that moment, it will get better. She use to say that “if you want to see a rainbow, you have to put up with the rain”. I believe that is true. I have seen many ups and downs in my lifetime and through those downs, it has taught me that life is too precious to just give up. I realized as a mother, I want to be there for all my child’s precious milestones.

What continues to inspire you in your motherhood journey?

My child was diagnosed with Autism at two years old and was nonverbal until almost four years old. He did not speak complete sentences until almost seven years old. Watching him grow and learn new skills, sensory or verbal, is incredible to witness. He now speaks all the time and loves to talk. He also had atrophy in his left leg for his first few years of life and was not able to walk and struggled to crawl. Seeing him not give up and keep working at it was the best feeling in the world as a mom.

Share one of your favorite stories from motherhood?

While visiting Magic Kingdom at least four times a week, my son always wanted to ride Splash Mountain. I loved that because it was my favorite ride as a child too (and still is). One day we were going down the big drop and I jokingly say, “Look Graysen, it’s raining” and he replied back very loudly, “Silly mommy, that’s not rain, that’s Splash Mountain”. It was so funny that our entire log of people on it started laughing.