I am learning that sometimes in your life you get special gifts. They are amazing and precious- they are when you get to watch your children be who they really are- who they were built to be, who they have always been since before they were yours here. You see their soul, and you realize that while yes they are "yours" and although they gained physical life with in me, I am in no way their creator. This has made me appreciate my role as their mother in an entirely different and wholly humbling way.
A really special friend said this to me a few years ago and it has changed me, she said - Before we came to earth we were spirits as we are now, we came here and gained bodies and while we are prevented from knowing and remembering anything from our time before coming here...we were personalities and we were happy and we were whole. We were as we should be. And the purpose of our lives here is to gain a realization of what we were then. It's a journey for the purpose of becoming or returning to that state of joy and peace.

The gift and the goal of being their mother is to Somehow help them to get there. And in the moments I am seeing their souls I realize how lucky i am that I get this privilege. How blessed am I that I will get to witness this. And how great the responsibility.
I have many things to be thankful for in my life, but most of all, I am thankful for my children.