Everyone has a mother, and everyone’s mother is different in their approach to parenting. This Mother’s Day, we’re celebrating motherhood across the board by highlighting some of the unique ways that our mothers love us. These include choosing life despite lacking a support system, adopting and fostering, taking special care with special needs children, etc. Here are five Students for Life of America (SFLA) team members and students’ stories on why their mom is amazing:  

Love is Unconditional, Not Based on “Quality of Life”  

SFLA Student Spokesperson Anna Young: “Everyone deserves a mom that sees a path through suffering. My mom chose life for my little brother despite the doctors noticing he had a fetal anomaly in the womb. She never hesitates to put his needs first, help him grow and develop, and give him the best childhood possible as he lives his daily life with special needs.  It isn’t easy to be a mom to a child with special needs, but her sacrificial love is so evident every single day. She chooses to celebrate my little brother’s differences, focus on his extraordinary abilities, and put her trust in the Lord – not in this world.”  

(Click HERE to read an Daily Wire op-ed by Young entitled “My Special Needs Brother Isn’t A Budget Constraint. He’s A Blessing.”)   

SFLA President Kristan Hawkins is also a mother to two of four children with cystic fibrosis. Hawkins told Focus on the Family about how her own family has strengthened her pro-life resolve, saying: “As a mother with children who others would argue should never have been born, I know that life has a value even if someone else does not view it as ‘perfect enough’ to survive.” 

Love is Fearless 

SFLA California Regional Coordinator Mary-Logan Miske: My mother gave me life, raised me on her own for 10 years, served our country, and taught me to value the preborn as her mother had taught her.

My mother found out she was pregnant with me her senior year of college. My biological father responded with shock and tried to pressure her into getting an abortion, even offering to pay for it. Instead of falling into despair, my mother trusted in God’s plan for her and her preborn baby. Although many questions remained unanswered as far as how it would all work out as a single mother, she never let go of her faith. She would have this child whether he was in the picture or not. She embraced her calling to be a mother, my mother.

She raised me and proved that women do not have to pick between their child and their career. My mother is the biggest inspiration in my life and my motivation for accepting the call to be part of the pro-life movement. Today, and every day, I am eternally grateful that she embraced motherhood, and Mother’s Day is a reminder of the empowering gift of motherhood for all of us. 

(To learn more about Miske’s story, click HERE to read another blog written by Miske entitled “Welcome to 33, Taylor Swift; It’s Been Waiting For You!”)  

Love Says I Choose You 

SFLA Student Spokesperson Noah Slayter: My mother always wanted a big family, but it wasn’t in the cards for her as my sister and I were the only children she had. I remember her saying, “Our family has more than enough love to bring someone new into” — and so we started foster care. For five years, we had close to 10 children in our house of all ages and backgrounds.  

Eventually, a young boy named Isaac came into our lives. He was funny, energetic, and clicked extraordinarily well with our family dynamic. When we were told Isaac was able to be adopted, my mother leaped at the chance to add Isaac into our family; we were all in agreement. That was seven years ago, and I cannot imagine a life without Isaac in it today. I am thankful my mother’s abundant love gave me a little brother.  

SFLA Capital Area Regional Coordinator Shaohannah Faith: As I prepare to get married on Mother’s Day weekend, I think of the people who have been a huge part of my life. And a couple of them are my moms. My adoptive mom is a very special person who made the decision to pursue international adoption from China as a single mom in her thirties. Very few people can say they have a mom that literally went to the other side of the world to make them a part of her life. 

While I don’t know my Chinese birth mother’s name or have any photo to remember her by, she chose life for me in the midst of difficult circumstances and despite societal pressure from the government. I will be forever grateful for her courage, strength, and willingness to look beyond herself and give me a chance to be here right now. 

One of my mothers gave me life, and the other one taught me how to live it. And I wouldn’t be who I am without either of these incredible women. 

Love is Limitless  

SFLA Pacific Southwest Regional Coordinator Jordan Brittain: My parents met in college and almost 35 years later, they have built a beautiful life together. With now 11 children and 15 grandchildren (and two more due in the fall), there is nothing we enjoy more than our Sundays attending Mass together and sharing brunch as a family. And this would not have been possible without the constant ‘yes’ of my parents; especially of my beautiful mother to put God’s plan first, to trust Him even when things were scary or overwhelming, and to willingly put her children above herself.  

A mother’s heart like no other, she has given everything of herself and never looked back. Though her doctor advised her to be finished having children, she trusted in God and accepted every pregnancy that came her way, with all the struggles and joys that would come with it. She fully understood the beauty, blessing and value of motherhood and of life.  

Now the CEO of a successful company, my mother is indeed a Wonder Woman —   but what makes her so special to me is that she is a mother first and foremost. Given the choice between her lucrative career and her children, she would never hesitate for a moment in choosing us. In a world which preaches climbing the corporate ladder or garnering power as the greatest of earthly achievements, my mother stares that narrative in the face every day and shows by her example (and joy) just how misguided and wrong it is. The world needs more women like her.  

This Mother’s Day, appreciate the moms in your life, remind them how important their role is — they’re helping to shape the next generation — and go out of your way to tell them how great they’re doing.