I want to thank you. Thank you for choosing a profession where your work might be undervalued or overlooked. I want to thank you for having a heart to serve — a heart to face the hard, exhausting, emotional, sometimes gross, and sometimes grief-stricken job that you go to every day.

The story of my firstborn’s birth. A hospital induction with an epidural. 12 hours later, and our daughter was here! Born with a cleft lip and palate, it was an emotional and healing birth after months of fear and worry.