For my first Mother’s Day, my husband and I flew with our baby from London to Iowa to visit his parents. My parents met us there, too, saying it was so all of us moms could be together for Mother’s Day. (Let’s be honest: all the grandparents just wanted to see their grandson!)

Knowing how much I loved to swim with my baby and how much my mother loved to swim with me, my father-in-law arranged for us to swim at a local hotel. Watching my nine-month-old baby inchworm confidently through the water towards my mom is another crystal clear memory.

Later that year, my husband insisted that if we were going to move to Austin, we needed to have a pool. He was thinking it would be the only way to endure the Austin summers. In the last fourteen years, our yard and pool has become a gathering point for friends and family and a fixture of the neighborhood.

Little did we know back in 2004 that I would use the pool to teach literally hundreds of children (and a few adults) to swim over the last 14 summers. Doing so is a real joy. To give someone a life skill that’s also fun is incredibly fulfilling.

Sharing my mother’s greatest gift– the joy of swimming

This year, I spent my Mother’s Day doing a little swimming with my own kids and a lot of swimming with other people’s kids. I’m not complaining. I treat each of those kids as if they are my own, working to earn their trust when they’re scared or unsure. And for my kids, I remind them how many people I met growing up who said, “Your mom taught me to swim.” I was so proud.

I also had the pleasure of working with four Iraqi refugee women who wanted to learn to swim. To protect their modesty, they are unable to swim in a public pool. A friend who volunteers with the local refugee agency connected them to me.  And on Mother’s Day, we were off and swimming.

Three of the four women, from their mid-30s to mid-50s, had never been in a pool before! In just one short hour, they went from being scared to being less scared to having fun. There was a lot of laughter as we pantomimed and breached the language barrier and high fived during our time together.

And the way they supported each other was a beautiful reminder of how my mother always sees the best in people and is never without an encouraging word. My mom would have been so proud that my new friends left the pool today with smiles on their faces.

My heart is full. I’m so grateful my mother’s greatest gift was teaching me to love the water and share that joy with others. It really made my Mother’s Day.