As we begin to leave the nest and start families of our own, we vow to give our children the things that we did not or could not have. We promised to have better jobs, homes, and food. We swore that we would live in a better neighborhood and drive a better car. In our own way, the majority of us have lived up to those promises while a handful have gone the extra mile.

One of the people that I admire the most has gone the extra mile and beyond. Raised as a single child in a broken home she dreamed of a big family. Somewhere safe and secure, with two parents and at least three kids. Of course life, it seemed had different plans for her. Starting with a baby at the young age of sixteen followed by a short-lived marriage and suddenly she was in her mother's footsteps.

Not ready to give up and become her mother's clone, Lynn picked herself up and prepared for a different life. By this time she had graduated high school and stood on the same educational ground as her mom, she had to go further. That lone decision was the single greatest turning point of her life and once it was made she never looked back. Lynn felt the need to do better by her young son.

Being a single mom is hard enough but adds to that a full-time job and full-time college schedule and you have close to impossible. During this time, she met and married her husband of seventeen years and shortly after became pregnant with her second child. Despite her ever-expanding belly, Lynn continued to waddle to every scheduled college class, work, tend her family and study.

As her family continued to grow with the addition of a third child, so did her drive for something better and her studies took on a larger part in that responsibility. Lynn studied late into the night as her family slept, ever striving for that B.S. in Criminal Psychology. With everything on her plate, Lynn never neglected her family or their needs and desires. Those kids never wanted for much that they did not get, mom made sure of that.

Designer clothes, trips to the beach or local amusement park, the latest movies and music were just a few of the things she was happy to provide for her little ones. On several occasions, she has even taken along one or two of their friends, at her expense of course. For her, sharing is not a problem and she gives freely. Both of herself, her possessions and her money.

Several years ago, she even loaned me her new car so that I could get my husband and rush to his sister's side in a hospital

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