There were so many who said the baby shouldn’t be born. Struggling to gain weight inside the womb and the result of an unplanned pregnancy to an unwed 20-year old woman, it seemed an obvious case of an inauspicious beginning to life that presaged a less than promising future. But the young woman ignored them all and followed her heart.

She knew that the life inside her, no matter how accidental on her part, was certainly no accident in the mind of God. Whatever the inconvenient circumstances of his conception, the young woman found herself guided and convicted by an inescapable truth: The life of her baby and the destiny of that life were not hers to take away. The decision had already been made.

She had felt the active and frenetic kicks of her unborn child and the obvious energy and determination of a baby that doctors would dub, ‘Mighty Mouse,’ for his spirited mobility inside the hospital isolette where he was placed after being born 8-weeks premature. He weighed only a little more than three pounds at birth and was dwarfed even by the tiny teddy bear that was his very first gift from grandparents who arrived to welcome him into the world. His young father’s newly-minted wedding ring fit over the boy’s skinny hand and arm with room to spare.

With a thick shock of stick-straight brown hair that made him look more than a little like a baby monkey, the boy was soon scooting around his preemie bed in equally simian fashion while doctors puzzled over how a child born so soon seemed to be suffering no ill effects either from his early arrival or small stature. Dire predictions about fragile health, cognitive development and even unsuccessful delivery would prove equally inaccurate to projections that he would be short and slow and small for his entire life.

None of it was true.

But somehow, the young woman had known all of that in her heart, years before there would be any proof for her beliefs. The boy was her firstborn son and a gift from God to be protected, cherished and loved.

So, on this Mother’s Day and every day of the year, I remain ever thankful for a mother who always believed enough in me to make difficult and unpopular choices despite difficult circumstances, to give me a chance at life that so many of my generation never had.

I love you, mom.