Here’s a typical interaction between a friend or acquaintance and me. See if any of this sounds familiar. One morning at a mom group leadership meeting recently, a beautiful, sweet friend complimented me on how pretty I looked that day. What was my response? To cringe internally at the thought of how bad I must look on a daily basis and say a quick thanks and then proceed to explain to her how it was my makeup from the night before that I hadn’t washed off yet because I’m cheap.

I wrote this letter a couple months prior to having my second child.

My precious children,

Life is full of choices. Things do not happen for an unknown reason. Things happen because of our decisions—not because of luck, and not because you or anyone else is entitled to anything. You can only control your own choices, not those of others. Good things are earned and should be celebrated; they happen as a result of hard work, determination, and perseverance. Perfection is impossible; excellence is not. Bad things happen, but even then, life is still good and lessons can be learned.

Let me tell you a story. When we lived in Tucson several years ago, we had a two-year-old, it was about 10 pm and we were totally out of diapers. There were none on the changing table, none in the closet, and none in the diaper bag. I know there are fellow parents reading this who have been there, done that. A certain, unnamed discount merchandiser to the rescue, right? Our daughter was in bed, asleep, so while my husband stayed home with her and finished up a couple of work assignments, I relished the alone time and drove down the darkened outer road next to the freeway the almost three miles to the store, parked in the well-lit parking lot, walked inside, found my diapers, checked out, and then walked back out into the parking lot to head for my car. I probably should have been, but I honestly wasn’t thinking at all about my safety at that moment in time.