There’s nothing to stop her from not only chasing after her dream, but catching up to it, grabbing the tail, and never letting go.

Believing in my capabilities as a young mother when I was only a little older than you are now was part survival instinct, part defense mechanism.

You’re a beautiful, strong, loving, capable woman whose baby/toddler/child/teen is SO lucky to have you as a mama.

Today, my children are with their father, instead of me. They are with him in the new home that he has created for himself, and them, separate from me.

This got her going on how fun “dads” are. “Dads,” for example, “are adventurous and like to do things like jump off cliffs.”

Single parenting is all the same work without a teammate there to tap out with.

I always wanted a bumper sticker that read: SINGLE MOTHERS ARE THE STRONGEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. For I think now that life makes us strong if we let it.

 I was staying in a relationship because I was scared that I didn’t have it in me to be a single mom anymore, to do all of those things alone.

Even with the most difficult parts of single parenting included, my world has been on an uphill slope since my daughter entered into it.

I’d never thought about the what-if scenarios of my death. Mia’s a badass kid. She’s resilient. We’ve been through so much, I think she can make it through just about anything.