Essay elevates her mom to finalist for award.(Life-Health)

Byline: JENNIFER GISH - Staff writer

Of course, Christine Barach cried. What mother wouldn't?

You've got three kids. One of them is a 14-year-old serious gymnast, who practices for at least four hours daily six days a week and runs you all over the state and beyond on weekends heading to meets. Your boys are 12 and 16, and for all intents and purposes, you live in a teenager's world all the time.

Somehow you work full-time and manage all of this, and even with kids as good as yours, you still put up with eye rolls and snarky comments. You keep an emergency stash of Calgon under your bathroom sink in case you get to one of those "take me away" moments.

And then, one day, you realize that they think more of …