Do you love your children?

I just finished my parent teacher conferences for the nine weeks. If you've read my facebook page recently you may already know what I'm about to say. I don't think I have ever finished conferences feeling so sad. I have learned so much in the past 24 hours about my students that I'm not even sure where to begin. The thing that I'm most disturbed about is the lack of care and concern I'm seeing from mothers for their children. For example, one little girl's mother hardly wants anything to do with her. The little girl and her sister are living with a woman who they have no relation to, but this woman has taken them in as if they are her own practically since birth! She is so good to them. This woman is in her late 60's though and has a disease that could take her at any moment. She has guardianship of the girls, but she doesn't know what will happen to them when she is gone, except that they will go back to live with their mom. Another little girl's mom and dad are not together. She is the product of a one night stand and lives between her parent's homes every other week. Her father and step mother are good to her and very loving. Her mother I'm just not sure about. A little boy in my room has many issues. Without going into detail, some things happened when he was living with his mother and she never stepped in to save him. When did mothers stop being mothers? I know that men haven't been stepping up to the plate for a long time, but over the past few years I have witnessed more mothers exiting their children's lives. Grandparents and even perfect strangers are stepping in to raise them. My heart is heavy...I pray every day for my students to have someone that loves them and can give them encouragement and guidance. So tell me. Do you love your children? Do you care about where they are and who they are with. Do you want them to succeed and are you there to help them achieve? I think tonight I'm going to be loving and hugging on my babies just a bit more. May God bless them and I pray that they know how loved and wanted they are!!!