September Mom of the Month {2018}
Memphis is full of amazing moms: working moms, stay-at-home moms, single moms, moms of multiples, etc. We want to highlight some of those moms! Each month we will feature one special mom as MMB’s mom of the month.
Being a mom is hard. Being an entrepreneur is hard. Being a “mompreneur” is unbelievably challenging and ridiculously rewarding. That’s just what our September Mom of the Month is – a successful mompreneur.
After moving to Memphis in 2010, Heather Wooden worked as a Behavior Analyst serving children with special needs and their families for years. After almost a decade of trying, waiting, and praying, Heather and her husband, Rodney, became parents when they adopted their first child in June 2015. While Heather loved the children she had served for so long, she wanted nothing more than to be home with her son, RT, full time.
Never being one to “sit around” much, their days were filled with activities: playdates, zoo trips, gymnastics, Spanish, and music classes. Rodney said she technically couldn’t be called a stay-at-home-mom because she was always on the go! Despite the fun-filled days, Heather wanted more. She wanted to continue to be with RT while pushing herself to be more and do more.
Over the next two years, Heather built a successful nutritional and wellness coaching business with AdvoCare. She began teaching English classes to students in China, as well as training and mentoring other prospective teachers for the company. She even manages a local website for parents and caregivers, Hulafrog – Memphis East/Olive Branch, which serves as the official community calendar for MMB.
In December 2017, Heather and Rodney got a call that a baby girl would be joining their family. They lovingly embraced their daughter, Lily, through a foster placement and are prayerfully waiting for her final adoption date (which is why you can’t see her precious face).
To say that life is a little bit busy for Heather would be a drastic understatement, but this work-on-the-go-mom couldn’t be more blessed to be with her babies every day while continuing to grow personally and professionally and serve others locally, nationally, and abroad through her businesses.
We asked Heather:
1. How do you juggle being a work-from-home mom and spending time with the kids?
First, I had to admit to myself that I couldn’t do it all at the same time and be successful at any of it. I have to designate time for some of my “work” tasks and have my husband or an in-home sitter keep the kids for a few hours each week so I can focus. I also have sometimes designated every day where I leave my phone in my office and just be a mom, because that’s my favorite and most important job. I give my family 100% of me with no distractions and that time is so precious. Then there are some parts of our days where I get to have the best of both worlds by sharing a Spark with another mom during a playdate or making sure the other moms in our classes know about Hulafrog. But it all takes a conscious effort and awareness of how I spend my time to prevent burnout all around and pure exhaustion.
2. If someone was going through their own infertility journey, what words of encouragement would you give her?
Know that your journey is yours alone. I very quickly decided not to allow myself to become upset when other people had babies. That is a wonderful thing to be celebrated! There are not a finite number of children in the world so celebrating someone else’s joy didn’t take away an opportunity for me to become a mom. I had to trust God’s plan and I’m so thankful I did, and that I didn’t allow myself to be miserable along the way. That’s not to say there isn’t a grieving period or that I never got sad, but I didn’t let myself live in those moments. And find someone who will listen in those hard moments and then help you snap right out of the funk and back into the fun so that you can live your life to the fullest while you wait for the next chapter.
3. Tell us a fun fact about yourself (not a fun mom fact, a fact about YOU)
Growing up, I did everything I could – basketball, softball, soccer, dance, cheerleading, and horseback riding. But my first love was dance. I competed nationally as a child and teenager, performed internationally in the London New Year’s Day parade, earned a BA in Dance in college, and worked as a professional choreographer for a while.
