I wish someone could have explained to me the heartbreak that parenting involves.

Take the worst disappointment, the worst heartbreak, the worst rejection and the worst pain you ever had in life…combine each of those feelings and multiply it by a million. That’s what parenting feels like every day.

There is no worse worry on the planet than creating the perfect combination of you and the person you’ve chosen to make a life with and thinking that could be taken from you at any moment. And that doesn’t just happen with parents of sick kids.

My friends with healthy kids have those worries too. And it is a terrible, awful, sickening and torturing feeling.

Having painted that wonderful picture, at the same time, think about how you feel after a major career success, or a personal achievement, or falling in love… and multiply that by a million.

Parenting feels like that every day too. Seeing that perfect combination of you and your mate that you created and watching him or her grow and learn and do what you taught and instilled. There is nothing more rewarding or joyful or wonderful in the entire world.

You can have career success and financial success and creative success and whatever other fulfillment you think is important. And believe me, those are all important. I know that better than anyone because I have truly missed them.

But having the confidence that you are raising a good, polite, funny, smart and kind person – there is no comparison.

It will change your view on the world completely. It will change your priorities. It will make you think about things you never did before.

Choosing to parent was the best choice I ever made. It gave me the greatest blessing and taught me the most powerful love that exists. No matter the hurt, no matter the outcome, I would make the same choice. Because making that choice changed me and changed this world forever.