My dearest Michael, I write this on late Christmas eve and I am reminded that you are moving into the next phase of your life as your 11th birthday approaches just 2 short days away. I remember like it was yesterday daddy and I driving to the hospital in the wee hours of the morning to prepare for your arrival into this world of ours, getting ready to change our lives for so much the better.

I reflect upon all of the hopes and desires for myself and how I would be a mother to you, a great mother to you as I now prepare to learn how to be a mother of an 11 year old young man. I hope I can be a great mother to you, but more a great parent. I want for you to be a man of conscience and wisdom. I want for you to be a kind soul who thinks of others with empathy and compassion. Yes of course I want for you success in life and intelligence, but more important to me even than that is your ability to be conscious of the world and the people around you. I have witnessed in you as I watch you grow into a more independent self these most lovely characteristics and I am so incredibly proud of you for these traits you have in your heart. There are so many things I know I am not great at, sometimes I am impatient and bossy with you, sometimes I take you for granted, sometimes I forget that you are in fact only 10 and treat you like you are older. I know I forget things at times like buying you pants and keeping your clothes clean and folded. Those things that make kids feel like their mom is doing those mom like things, I am not always great at as I try to combine being a great mom and run two businesses. I know you know or at least I hope you know at your deepest level that these things I may not do like some of the other moms you may know have nothing at all to do with my deep love for you. I care so much about you. I am trying to raise you to be independent and self sufficient and guide you through the path we call life. This is the way I choose to show you my love and more important my respect for you as an individual and I know that you know that. My way of being a good mother to you is more inherent in being a good parent and setting a great example by the way I treat people and the way you observe that. As you begin to move away from the intimacy we have shared for the past 10 years as our son and into more important things like your friends and outside activities, it is so important to me that you always remember the core values that daddy and I have hopefully instilled in you. Be kind to others, treat others with the same respect you wish to be treated. Never take the path that your heart and soul doesn't feel to be right even if it is not the most popular. Try not to worry what other people have or think and remember to give back to the world if not money, your ideas and your joys. Smile at everyone and say hello because it may just make a stranger's day. Ask for help when you need it and know that I love you at the deepest level no matter what you do or say simply because I always have and I always will and that it just is because that is what love is. Always present, always available for the taking and the giving, there when you need it and waiting patiently when you don't think you do. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Goodbye to the first 10 years, they have been a remarkable gift to my heart and I am most thankful for you and all of the gifts your little being as brought to my spirit. May you always live in Btzelim Elohim, the image of G-d, and remember that we are all G-d's children and we are all connected to each other by our actions and our mitzvahs and you Daddy and I are connected at our roots for the rest of time. I love and adore you Love mommy