Raising children is truly rewarding work. Not many seeds we sow in this life reap the incomparable benefits of the love and gratitude given back to you from a well raised child. Children are the purest souls on earth and mine offer me a great deal of inspiration and creative material to be the renaissance woman I am. The value of my life is found in the hearts of my children.

How they all came together (even our adult daughter) and stayed up all night making me the most beautiful surprise poster of their drawings and special quotes etc - to hold up at the finish line for me as I finished my first 19.3 mile marathon this Feb 2025. They were all right there with their dad/my husband screaming Go mommy GO!!! It touched my heart so deep and made me cry because sometimes I feel my kids don’t really see me and all that I do. I felt so appreciated and loved on that day.

I would immediately use it towards a down payment on buying our first house that we need and want so badly. My husband and I have been renting apartments for 20 years and never had a house/yard for our family to call our own. We want to be able to leave something to our children(+my niece)/grandchildren and build a family legacy like the strong beautiful one’s my husband and I came from.