Shannon shares: “My mom figure is actually the girl who made me a mom. My daughter blessed her dad and I from birth yet had some significant struggles with trauma and the fallout from that during her early teen years leading to addiction and severe mental health challenges. At 16 she found out she was pregnant but in reality her baby was her saving grace. She graduated high school, did pseo/ college during high school, got a full time professional job at 18, commuted, got married, purchased a home, and got her bachelors degree all before age 21. All while doing amazing mom things and engaging and raising the most wonderful, intelligent little girl, now age 4. She continues to work hard to heal her trauma to be the best mom she can be.
She’s the first to say she couldn’t have done all those things without the support of her mom and dad. So I suppose we had a hand in some of that. However I know that God has a hand in her life. There is purpose and passion and urgency in his plan for her. She is not fully connected to Jesus as unfortunately some of her trauma was religious abuse. She may not be holding his hand currently but I know that God is holding hers. There’s no other way around it.
There’s no greater blessing than to watch your own children grow, conquer and thrive. I nominate my daughter for the Heart of a Mom gift because self care is something she’s still working on and I’m so proud of her.”