We all know what its like to be loved without condition by someone … at least I pray that is true for most people.  We know what its like to have someone support us and encourage us and make us feel like we are the “favorite” or most important … again, I hope you all have experienced this by at least one person in your life.  And, if you have, you know how priceless it is to truly be loved well by another person. Now, multiply that feeling times 2 thousand and seven and that is what it feels like when someone else loves your child this way.  So is the case for me because of these little cuties’ mama.

Ms. Nicole has been Mia Grace’s preschool teacher for three years now, well technically 2 1/2 I guess, and she has been one the biggest blessings to me as a working mom that words simply cannot express. From day 1, which was Valentines Day 2008,  she made me feel like I had the most special daughter in the universe (which I already knew!), but she truly has helped validate me as a mom, and specifically a working mom, in more ways than I can count. Sacrificing time with your babies is not an easy decision sometimes (sometimes it is 😉 ), but even though I’ve always known deep inside that I am a better mother because I work and because I have my own business, having someone to hand your child over to who loves them like Ms. Nicole makes all the difference in the world. For the past three years she has sent a little note home each school day taking special time to tell me what MG did or said that day, from her mothering and protecting all the classroom babies (with her favorite being the big brown one), or her crazy eating habits, such as dipping everything from carrots to raisins in ranch dressing, sharing with me that she is quite the little athlete, to her being the first to volunteer to pray out loud for lunch, to me learning that her favorite color is indeed purple, to helping her write her name for the first time and offering me insight into her “mothering” (read:bossy) character, yet sensitive spirit who aims to please everyone.  She’s even taken Mia Grace to her own home each school day for the last year so I can work and she and her precious kids could spend time with Mia Grace … all for what??  Just a simple thank you, and these photos of her babies below.

Obviously, I know I got the waaaaay better end of the deal.

Meet Cadance and Chase.