When your child has a life-threatening illness, your world changes.  It magnifies, exponentially.  It changes who you are as a person.  As a mother.

I realize that all mothers have their challenges.  Every child is uniquely different, requiring their own special set of needs that need to be met.  Those waters are no small feat for any mother to navigate.  I am by no means diminishing the challenges that every mother faces while raising her children.

But our challenge is different.  Without the proper care, without diligent planning, without paying close attention to every detail, every second of every day…our child could die.

Those words are heavy and difficult for me to say.  “My child could die.”

Do not get me wrong…our Type 1 children are nothing short of amazing.  They are strong.  They are fierce.  They are WARRIORS.  They overcome more battles each day than most could in a year.  They manage.  They deal.  They prepare.  They problem solve.  They SUCCEED!  They do their best to live a very normal life.  I could go on and on about how wonderful and resilient they are.

But what I want to talk about today are the forces behind those warriors…their MOMMAS.  The mommas whose lives are anything BUT normal.  The mommas who tremble the first day they send their child back to school after diagnosis, who spend countless hours fighting with insurance, scheduling doctor’s appointments and ordering supplies, who cringe when they hear that the stomach bug is going around because that is a whole different ball game for a Type 1 Diabetic, who spend endless nights treating scary low blood sugars and stubborn high blood sugars, who hold their breath while the ketone meter counts down, whose favorite number is 100, who have to answer the same question over and over “yes, she can have sugar” trying their best not to roll their eyes, who spend all their energy advocating for awareness for this silent disease, who have snacks and low supplies stashed everywhere, who have memorized the carb count for every food known to man, who can make insulin dose calculations in their sleep…SLEEP???  What is sleep???

The mommas who spend all day, every day, planning, anticipating every possible scenario, so that life can go on seemingly normal for their child.  Always in the background, but ever present.

You may feel invisible.  You may think all your actions, hard work and effort goes unnoticed.  You are not alone.

I see you.  I feel you.  I applaud you.  I admire you.  I am you.

The Unlikely Hero.

You are amazing.

You are enough.

You are the calm in their storm.

YOU are the reason they are strong.  You have modeled strength and they have watched you.

There is an unspoken connection between Type 1 mommas.  An immediate bond.  An understanding like no other.  A calming comfort knowing they just “get” it.  They speak your language.  I am beyond blessed to be in a tribe with such remarkable women.

Women who smile when they feel like crying, who stand tall when they want to crumble, who are relentless advocates to anyone who will listen, who fight every day against a monster of a disease, and who grab a Starbucks and face the day with little to no sleep and simply go on about their day and all the rest of their responsibilities.

And who wake up and do it all over again.  Never once complaining.  (However sometimes requiring a little Tory Burch retail therapy). Because that’s just what we do.  Because they are our children and there is no mountain we wouldn’t climb for them.