This is the last and for me the most important of these posts.

Fourteen years one month and three days ago, I sat in a hospital room with Desiree, we were both young and nervous. We had been married for almost two years and we were expecting our first child, our first son.

Desiree laid in a hospital bed with the fetal heart rate monitor on and we watched as our baby’s heart rate would fluctuate between a normal range and 50 bpm. After laboring for quite some time with no progress and the continual drop in the baby’s heart rate the dr said he was going to throw in the towel. We discovered with our next child that Desiree had to have c-sections because of the size and shape and position of her pelvis would not allow a our kids big ole melons to pass through. Back in the day should would most likely have been one of those women who died in childbirth.

So the nurses wheeled Desiree down the hall and through the construction site to the brand new operating room of the round rock hospital. She was the first surgery in the be OR and it was some kind of experience, it took awhile for the drs and nurses to find everything they need and no one knew how to fix the heat and on and on, but I digress…

I held her hand as they began the section, she shook under the anesthetic; she was scared and nervous and excited. They delivered our son, and because he was so relaxed, they were concerned for him and rushed him right away over to the baby area and rubbed him and face him oxygen and on and on. We didn’t hear him cry for a couple of days, turns out he was just a really chill baby. While they were working on our news little baby boy Desiree was going through the rest of the surgery unable to see or hold that little boy she has been growing inside her for the past nine months. It took a while before the baby dr felt good enough to wrap him up and let Desiree see him. The nurse wrapped him up and I walked him back over to let Desiree see her son. I cried.

We took a day or so to name him. And he almost had four names but we compromised and introduced our family to kimball walker Michael jones.

Desiree was a mother.

Being parents, as we grew to find out, was not an easy undertaking. Being a mother was more than just being a parent. Desiree slept little, worked a lot, and loved deeply.

Ammon Kai, our next son was born 2 years and a few months after Kimball.  Just shy of three years after that, Kelsyn Malachi was born. Three sons, three strong willed boys joined our family. Each of them has their own very distinct, very different personalities.

Throughout this time of trying to raise boys she was also a full time photographer helping me build a business. Just a couple of days before delivering Kelsyn she was on her feet for ten hours photographing a wedding. She worked tirelessly to build our business to what it is. Most people would agree that our success is thanks to her. I did play but a small role in the growth of our business. Desiree and I also chose to remove our kids from APS public schools and put them in charter schools. This has also been a very difficult thing to do over the past few years. We have had them at two different charter schools, our daily commute to and from school takes two hours out of the day. We did this, not because it was easy, but because Desiree knew it was best for our children.

Three and a half years ago our little girl was born. We thought we were done with the three boys and there is a significant gap in age between Kelsyn and Eden, but our family was not complete without Eden and though we felt it, it took the sacred words of a 4 year old to make us realize that we were missing Eden in our family.

Desiree now has her little girl to go shopping with, to do hair with, so to the salon and paint toes together. Even though Eden Ainsley is a total spitfire of a red head. she has completed us.

Desiree continues to love and nurture all four of our children. She continues to work tireless hours photographing families and babies. She still gets called away from our family at all hours to photograph families through NILMDTS.org. This week she was called out three times because the other two photographers were unable to go or could not be reached. Desiree always goes when called, she is the area coordinator and when the other photographers can’t be reached, she takes up the slack and helps these other families who are going through great family tragedies. It has been a great burden on our family, but that is Desiree. She cares for others and for other mothers especially, that she will sacrifice of herself, her sleep, her time with family, and whatever else it takes to help these families. And it is often a stressful thankless job.

I am so proud of Desiree for all that she is and does. For her tireless dedication to her family and people she works with. She is kind, she is beautiful, she is loving and cares deeply for people, she is a role model, a businesswoman, she is an artists and documentarian, she is a wife, she is a teacher, a leader, a spiritual guide. She is my best friend, my other half. She is my inspiration and my support and she is a mother. In every sense of the word she is a mother.

I know this post may be a bit back and forth, there is so much I could say about Desiree; so much that I wish people knew about her and could see for themselves. It’s hard to express all this in a small blog post. So I hope this is just a small glimpse of what a mother is and does.

Happy Mother’s day to you all and especially to your Desiree!