Bio

I used to fight the title of “Stay at Home Mom.”  I didn’t want to be a “stay at home mom.”  I am married, I have two children and I don’t work outside of the home, but I am so much more that a “stay at home mom.”  I love to take care of my family.  I love to cook, decorate and create Halloween costumes during the month of October.  But I am also a lawyer and business woman.  I recently started my own company, Birth by Paperwork, an international adoption dossier service.  My husband and I also have cattle interests in Texas and New Mexico.

My daughters were internationally adopted.  Elle came from Russia in 1999 and in 2005 we brought home Bunny from Guatemala.  I love everything about international adoption.  The idea that you can save a child and give them a life better than the one they were born into is what makes my world go around.  That is why I started Birth by Paperwork.  I want to help families realize their own dreams of an international family.

I am also a breast cancer survivor and in 1998 I co-founded the Young Survival Coalition, an organization for young women affected by breast cancer.  Until January, I was the President of the YSC Board of Directors.  A part of my passion will always be spent on breast cancer issues because I don’t want another young woman to be told by her doctor she is too young for breast cancer.

I was also a widow once.  My first husband was killed in 1998 in the Swissair 111 plane crash off the coast of Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia.  In the years since his death I have become concerned with aviation safety.  I used to sit on the board of directors of the National Air Disaster Alliance.  I have also been a speaker at Delta and Southwest Airlines for their  family care training.  My heart breaks every time another flight goes down because I know the pain and devastation the families will go through.  But them sometime I can celebrate a flight such as US Air Flight 1549.

I have always been fascinated by the different roles that today’s woman plays. For example, I am a wife, mother, lawyer, business woman, nurse, chef, chauffeur, wanna-be artist, breast cancer survivor, etc., etc., etc.

As a wanna-be artist, I love to draw hats. So why not combine my fascination with the roles of women with the myriad of hats they wear every day.

So welcome to A Mother’s Hood – Hats for Every Occasion.