Mama of the Month
The Work At Home Woman – Holly Hanna
January 21st, 2010
Holly Hanna has created an incredible website called The Work at Home Woman, www.TheWorkatHomeWoman.com. On this site Holly has listed an array of resources that anyone, male or female, can use to create a work from home situation. If you want to do direct sales, Holly has provided a listing of reputable companies all members of the Direct Sales Association. If you want to freelance, Holly has information on how to begin making contacts. Finally, If you want to make the big leap and start your own business, Holly provides resources on making business plans, getting funding, marketing and getting your business established.
It’s amazing to think that one woman created such an incredible, comprehensive site. “I actually compiled and created the content for the website over 16 months before I even had the website created,” says Hanna. Mama to one little girl, Hanna didn’t want to put her daughter in day care when she was an infant. “Thankfully my husband’s job is able to fully support us,” says Hanna. “Yet after being home for a while, I needed an adult outlet.” Hanna began searching the web for work at home opportunities and soon began working part time as a social media marketing manager. However, Hanna had been so frustrated by the lack of legitimate information available during her search she compiled it herself. “I just didn’t want other women to have to go through the hassle that I went through,” says Hanna.
If you are interested in working from home, visit The Work at Home Woman at www.theworkathomewoman.com
Meet Kelli Kelley!
December 8th, 2009
Meet Kelli Kelley. This mother of 2 has had an intimate experience with preterm labor and prematurity. In 2000 her son Jackson was born at 24 weeks weighing just 1lb 8oz and was 12 1/2 inches long. Jackson spent 4 months, 105 days in the NICU, but remarkably today, he is a robust 9 year old. There are a few residual effects of his prematurity; he wears glasses, he has some fine motor coordination difficulties and needs a bit of extra help with school work, but overall he’s doing great. Kelley’s daughter Lauren was also born prematurely at 34 weeks, but only spent 1 week in the NICU. She too is doing just great at 6 years old.
When Kelley tells her story, she speaks of how isolated she often felt with such a tiny baby who was so sickly. As a result of her own experience, Kelley is starting an organization to support families of premature infants. A Hand to Hold is a non-profit organization that will partner new parents of preemies with “seasoned” parents of preemies to not only help the new parents navigate the maze of information, health care and developmental services they’ll need to care for their child, but also to support them and to offer a sympathetic ear, shoulder to lean on and a hand to hold as they raise these sometimes very “delicate” children. The organization will initially start in Texas, but Kelley plans to make the program national so that parents will have all that they need to cope and so that the entire family can thrive.
Listen to Kelli Kelley’s story and how she is setting up in an online interview in our most recent podcast. As always, constructive comments and feedback are always welcome.
It’s my pleasure to introduce to you J. Davis Harte!
October 21st, 2009
It’s my pleasure to introduce to you J. Davis Harte. Davis and I are twitter friends and I have come to truly admire her incredible fortitude. Davis is a Type I (Insulin Dependent) Diabetic who keeps impeccable control of her blood sugars. Still, she could not escape pregnancy complications and prescribed bed rest. But not to worry, Davis and her adorable daughter are just fine! Her is Davis’s story.
“I have a passion for both children and designing interior spaces. Therefore my consultancy business, Paradigm Spaces, rightly focuses on the designing of spaces for children!”
Davis is a time management maven. Davis balances advising commercial design projects while finishing her Master’s Degree in Design and the Near Environment at Oregon State University, teaching undergraduate studios and being a new mom.
After living and (mostly) thriving with insulin dependent diabetes (Type 1) for 33 years, it came as no real surprise to Davis and her OB when she began to display signs of pre-eclampsia. At 34 weeks, she was persuaded to start bed rest. However, having already invested 3 years in her graduate program, a medically complicated pregnancy wasn’t about to arrest her progress! During the last few weeks of her data collection, Davis bent the rules slightly of her prescribed modified bed rest by allowing her mom and husband to drive her to the preschool where she was collecting her data. (These were her only outings aside from regular non-stress tests and growth-scans for about a month!) She monitored her blood pressures at home and was checked regularly by her OB for urine protein levels. Meanwhile, her diabetes management could not have been more well-controlled. She had a final A1C (blood glucose average test) of 5.7 – nearly as good as a person without diabetes. Nevertheless, her baby was estimated at 9lbs 12oz at 37 weeks and the pre-eclampsia was progressing, so she and her husband made the decision to start the induction process. Her beautiful daughter Freya was born on September 16th, 2009, weighing 9lbs 12oz and 21.5 inches long. Not a typical preeclampsia size – but Davis has never done anything typically and she couldn’t be more thankful or proud of the healthy outcome for both herself and her daughter.
To learn more about Davis and her incredible journey with Type I Diabetes, visit http://tudiabetes.com/profile/davissimo
