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Once a mom, always a mom. We may enter motherhood through different avenues, but whether we cradle our bundles of joy the first moment of their lives or hold them tightly to us later, our love only deepens from the day we first meet.

""We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."-E.M. Forester So, what do you want to be when you grow up? It's a question that takes many people years and years of trial and error and self-discovery to figure out. But for singer/songwriter Francesca Battistelli, her mind was made up when she was only six years old. After seeing "The Secret Garden" on Broadway with her parents, the decision was ultimately a no-brainer. "There was just something about live theater-especially musical theater-that has always resonated with me," Francesca says. "So I thought that was it. I was going to be Mary Lennox in 'The Secret Garden'." Of course for anyone who knew her family, Francesca's passion for life on the stage wasn't all that surprising, given her mom and dad's extensive theater background. In fact, they met when her dad was the assistant conductor for the national tour of "The King and I," while her mom played Anna, the show's female lead opposite Yul Brynner. "

When I was a mother raising children alone, I possessed one certain Bible. I wrote notes in the margins beside verses that pertained to my circumstances, asking God to apply that truth to my need. My Bible was my diary (much like the little pink one with a lock on it that I hid under my pillow when I was eight years old). Then when I married Rich 25 years ago, I purchased another Bible, one accompanied with fresh-smelling neon markers.