Mother’s Day is this Sunday, on May 10th. Personally, I think that this a holiday that is widely underappreciated. A lot of our moms go to the absolute extreme for us. Minus the obvious (that they gave birth to us), moms are still so important. I’ll use my mother as an example.

My mom’s name is Kinsey Starns. From the moment that her first child was born, she’s never stopped being a fearless protector. My family story is a little complicated. I found out a couple of months ago that I have a different father than my siblings. I have two full-blood brothers but one is somewhere in the world (I’ve never met him), and the other is unfortunately no longer here on this Earth. The guy that has raised me like a daughter isn’t actually my dad. My real dad is in jail for sexual harassment. He has been for the past 12 years.

When my mom and my biological dad met, she wasn’t in the best place. He abused her, my brother, and me when we were just babies. Eventually, my brother was taken away by the state, but my mom got to keep me. She met the guy who raised me, married him, and then had my brother and sister that I have grown up with. My mom is very strong. She went through all of the emotional and mental effects of this experience and still managed to raise three kids. And since she married my step-dad last summer, now she has two more kids to take care of since he has his own children. But she still does an amazing job at it.

Even now in this Coronavirus pandemic, she still goes to work every single day to provide for us. She works in a nursing home, and in the specific area where she works, many of the residents have gotten the virus. My mom wears the right protective gear of course, and she goes into her job every day to take care of them. That takes a lot of courage. She didn’t have to do that. But because my stepdad is currently out of work, she felt it was her responsibility to make as much money as possible.

My mom is also very fearless. She’s not afraid to stick up for her kids and she does everything she can to make sure that we are constantly happy and taken care of. For example, I have a court trial coming up. My mom has been working endlessly to make sure that things work out the way they are supposed to. She got into an accident the other day and ended up getting a concussion from it. But even then, she was still working with my lawyer because she knows that as soon as the courts open back up, I’m going on trial. She constantly puts her kids before her, like taking them to practices or after-school activities. She’s always on top of my brother and making sure that he has the right grades for the profession that he wants to do in the future. My mom is also very loving. She always shows everyone around her, even strangers, with so much kindness and love.

I am pretty lucky to have her as my mom.