Every month I have the opportunity to find and interview an extraordinary mom at ConnectingMoms.com (sorry, shameless plug here). There is little doubt that meeting and getting to know inspirational women has become the most fulfilling aspect of my job, but finding interviewees it is not always that simple. Sometimes, I do get lucky though.

Last month during NaBloPoMo, I had a field day meeting dozens and dozens of bloggers in the blog-o-sphere. To no surprise, most of them were mothers. But within the first week I stumbled upon one mom’s profile that left me utterly shaken. A line in her ‘About Me’ read, “…I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2000. I was 24….”

I made it through Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2000 just fine, but my heart stopped when I reached 24. I swallowed deeply while clamoring for a breath, and rubbed my eyes to make sure I did in fact read, “24.” My thoughts immediately began to thumb through memory files for a glimpse of what my own life was like then. Images of South Beach, laying on the sand, ample single person’s salary, and not a worry in the world, except how to shake off the stress of working in the Intensive Care for 14 hours the night before. My mind could not even fathom being a patient with Cancer at 24, or even today.

As I read on in her profile, she skimmed the surface about even more obstacles in her life. Not little ones. Big ones. Major ones. More than most would even endure in a lifetime. But yet, nothing in her writing gave the slightest hint of remorse, anger, or self-pity. On the contrary, she wore every tragic installment from her life on her sleeve as a badge of honor. Maybe as a reminder for her. Maybe even, as a reminder to us.

Here’s a sneak peak at my close-up interview with my new blogging friend Jennic from Sweetiesu. Her story has already made an impact on my life (as a nurse, and mother), and I hope it will do the same for you.

Close Up with Jennic

How were you an “illegal baby”, and how were your parents able to keep you safe?
I was born in the 70’s in China. In the early-mid 70’s, the Chinese government came up with this law to combat the exploding population growth. The law states that each family could have only one child (one birth so if the birth were multiples, then it is still considered “legal”) and it was being implemented across the entire country. My mother was five-months pregnant with me at the time when the authorities came to take her to do an abortion. She refused and before the authorities could come back for further actions,…..click here to read more.

Are you an extraordinary mom? Know of one? Please tell me so I can interview her. Leave a comment below or email me

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.