I am a wife to a loving and understanding husband and a mom to 2 beautiful and wonderful kids, Brayden, age 5 and Kennedy, age 3. Before coming to Heroes for Children I worked for a nonprofit blood bank in California. When my son was born in 2003 I became a stay at home. We moved our family of 3 to Texas in 2004. Right around this time, I was involved in an online mom’s board and two days after Allie was diagnosed with AML there was a site message that took us to http://www.scotthousehold.com (yes, I was one of those internet stalkers). I was immediately captivated by those blue eyes and her mom’s strength. I remember staying up late hoping for the day’s update, many times reading through tears. I remember being in awe of how much courage Jenny had to share every bit of Allie with so many people. Shortly after moving to Texas we found out we were pregnant with our baby girl. When Allie passed away I so badly wanted to go to her funeral but I felt I would be intruding on this family I only knew through the computer. I continued to follow Allie’s story. When Jenny and Larissa started HFC I knew I wanted to get involved but I also had a 6 month old (who screamed A LOT!!) and a 2 year old with no family in the area to help me with babysitting. I participated in the 5K in 2005 to support HFC and still knew that I wanted and needed to get involved with the organization.
In the fall of 2007, Brayden started his last year of preschool and at registration time (that happens 8 months before the school year starts) I didn’t register Kennedy, thinking she wouldn’t be ready. But of course she proved me wrong the first day of school when she kicked and screamed “where is my class,” while I dragged her away and right pass the director. She gave me one of those I told you so looks but also offered to see what she can find for Kennedy. Oh the excitement I felt walking out of that school that morning. I was going to have both my kids in school 2 days a week. It took 2 months for them to find a spot for Kennedy but once they did, both Kennedy and I were hooked...preschool rocks!
By January I was feeling the need to do something with my free time. I had too much of it apparently. So I finally filled out the volunteer form for HFC! In March I started with addressing envelopes and that progressed to volunteering every Monday in the office while my kids were at preschool. Jenny and I hit it off and I feel like we walked into each other’s lives at the precise moment we needed to. When Jenny started talking to me about coming to work for HFC I was ecstatic to be offer the opportunity to not only do what I love to do (events) but to be working for such an amazing organization, I couldn’t resist. Though I do admit I had a few “what I am doing going back to work after being a stay at home mom for 5 years” moments during the 2 month approval process. But I couldn’t ask for a better job, with wonderful co-workers, and being able to make a difference in people’s lives.
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