10 Years....Many People

Happy, Happy 10th Birthday Tyler!

There are no adequate words of gratitude in my vocabulary to express how completely humbled, honored, and completely beside myself I am that I get to call you my son.

Likewise, there are no adequate words of gratitude in my vocabulary to express how completely humbled, honored, and completely beside myself I am that each our family and so very many of my friends: old, new, and friends of friends have surrounded you, supported us during this amazing 10 year adventure.

To all of you: YOU have been an integral thread in weaving Tyler to be the incredible kid he is today, and the fabric of the man he will become: THANK YOU. My words are wholly inadequate, but I promise you, Tyler will forever be better for it, and I will never let him forget how to live with grace for it.

I always knew I would be a single mom.

Had you told me 10 years later, I would still be a single mom, I probably would have jumped right off a cliff into the Pacific.

Thankfully, you were there.

You were there when I crumbled, you were there when I fell apart. You were there when I needed a manly vote on circumcision, to explain to my kid the necessity of a nut cup, to duct tape his diaper back on when I needed a night out.

You were there to teach him to piss standing up, to talk to him about the teams in the WAC, Big 12, Big 10 and National League and American League and to ask him about his own batting average and explain the difference between batting average and slugging percentage (because he didn't believe his dumb mom). You reinforced me when I needed it and you made fun of me with T when I needed it too.

Thankfully you were there.

And now, 10 years later, I sit alone, my kid off in sunny California with his dad and lament, that 10 years later, I could not be happier than I am, still a single mom.

My kid: this amazing, funny, well-traveled, brave, socially responsible, and sensitive little man, has grown with each and every one of your influences painting some part of the fabric of who he's become. You've taken a vested interest in him that far surpasses any call of friendship. The opportunities, the knowledge and the love you ALL have given and provided him...are irreplaceable and are his forever.

I am so humbled, grateful, thankful...you are still and will always be here for us both.

To each and every one of you: you know who you are....we love you, to infinity and beyond.