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"  Becoming a parent is a life-changing experience. It opens your heart, and it opens your eyes to the world in a new way. It makes you laugh and cry and feel more deeply than you ever did before. Still, motherhood gets a bad rap -- for narrowing your choices, stunting your intellect, and making you less visible to the world around you. But real moms know how false that is -- how, even with all the necessary sacrifices it entails, becoming a mom can often spark something unexpected inside of you, animate a new layer of your spirit, and urge you down a path you never planned to take, one that&amp;#039;s just for you. Meet seven women who know motherhood isn&amp;#039;t just giving birth to a child. It&amp;#039;s also giving birth to a new idea of yourself. Being a mom... Gave Me Pride In My Heritage  Erika Evensen, 38 Neenah, WI Mother of Hannah, 11, and Matt, 9  &amp;quot;Growing up, mine was the only Mexican family in our neighborhood. I was embarrassed to have friends over because we spoke Spanish, ate tortillas and refried beans, and regularly had 20 relatives at our house. I just wanted to be like everyone else, and because I&amp;#039;m fair, I passed myself off as white.  &amp;quot;That desire to deny my ethnicity disappeared when my daughter was born. I was overwhelmed by the fact that one minute you&amp;#039;re just husband and wife and the next you&amp;#039;re a family. That instant sense of family made me see my Hispanic heritage through different eyes. I began to embrace traditions like piercing my newborn daughter&amp;#039;s ears, and I started speaking to her in Spanish. I realized that the family life I had growing up was something I was lucky to experience. Now I&amp;#039;m trying to pass that on to my kids, and I know it&amp;#039;s working: Recently, when my daughter was asked to bring her favorite food to school, she had my mom FedEx her chorizo (a traditional spicy sausage from Mexico). Hannah was so proud to share this with her class. And so was I.&amp;quot; Being a mom... Put Me In Business Serina Hunter Thomas, 36 Shepardson, WV Mother of Shalin, 5, and Samaire, 3  &amp;quot;When I first became a mother, I heard about the importance of reading to your kids and how it improves a child&amp;#039;s chances for doing well in school. As I watched my daughters learn from the books we read at bedtime every night, I understood why. Once my kids went to school, I became aware of the high illiteracy rate in our regional school districts. I wanted to get all the wonderful books that my kids read into the hands of other children.  &amp;quot;I was already planning to start some type of home-based business so I could be around the house more. I thought I would be selling Avon or Tupperware. But then it dawned on me: I could sell children&amp;#039;s books and not only make a living, but at the same time get books into the public school system by participating in fairs and reading programs. My business is only just beginning to bloom -- I have a website and have had a few private book parties, and I will be renting out space in a shopping mall. Knowing that I can make a difference fills up a part of my heart that, up until now, felt empty. Being a mom made me want to teach the world to read -- not just my kids, but all kids.&amp;quot; Being a mom... Taught Me I Was A Healer Alexis Fryer, 40 San Francisco Mother of Dylan, 6, and Zach, 3  &amp;quot;When he was a toddler, my son developed anxiety and a severe food phobia, and was sick with colds all the time. We tried everything from prescription medications to psychotherapy, and nothing worked. Then I went to see a doctor who was also a homeopath -- and was surprised when the medication she gave us worked. &amp;quot;That experience made me realize that there are possibilities for healing that go way beyond just curing your symptoms. Homeopathy is a personalized energy medicine that allows your body to heal itself. I began reading a lot about it and then saw a homeopath for my own health. When I mentioned to him that I&amp;#039;d become so interested in it that I was thinking about becoming a homeopath myself, he said, &amp;#039;You&amp;#039;d be great at it.&amp;#039; It sounds corny, but that was my &amp;#039;light bulb&amp;#039; moment. I felt as if my whole life had been leading up to that discovery and that this is what I wanted to do more than anything in the world. Today, I have two more years in school for homeopathy and hope to eventually open my own practice. Not only has homeopathy helped me keep my kids healthy, but it&amp;#039;s set a new path for me in life.&amp;quot; Being a mom... Drove Me To Finish What I&amp;#039;d Started Kelly Kennelly, 36 Buffalo, NY Mother of Patrick, 11, Tara, 9, and Sean, 7  &amp;quot;I dropped out of college twice -- once because I just wasn&amp;#039;t interested and a second time when I got pregnant. Not having my degree made me feel like there was something unfinished inside of me. But it wasn&amp;#039;t until I became a mother that I realized I still had the potential to finish it. I always looked at my three children as these clean slates who could do anything they wanted in life. And then it hit me: I could do anything I wanted in life, too. I could achieve my dream of going back to school and becoming a nurse.  &amp;quot;Now, I&amp;#039;m finishing my first year in nursing school, and it&amp;#039;s even more satisfying than I could have imagined. I&amp;#039;ve used this whole experience as a teaching tool for my children. I want them to see that you never give up on something you really want, even when it&amp;#039;s difficult. I hope that when they&amp;#039;re struggling with something, they&amp;#039;ll think, If my mom went back to school in her late 30s with three kids, then I can do anything! Now I know that with a lot of hard work -- and some prayer! -- I&amp;#039;ll get my degree. And I&amp;#039;ll own that.&amp;quot; Being a mom... Forced Me To Face My Anorexia Carrie Estok, 33 Wyndmoor, PA Mother of Lola, 9, and Stella, 6  &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve had anorexia and body dysmorphic disorder -- where I look in the mirror and see a fat, ugly person even though I&amp;#039;m thin -- since I was 15 years old. After my daughters were born, I thought I could hide my eating disorders from them. But as they got older, it became apparent that I wasn&amp;#039;t fooling anyone. Little things showed me that they&amp;#039;d picked up on my thoughts and behaviors. They&amp;#039;d look at magazines or TV shows and say that a girl was pretty because she was skinny. Or my oldest would pick at her dinner and say she was full after four bites, just like I do. That&amp;#039;s when it hit me.  I had to get control of my anorexia -- the last thing I want to do is pass this curse on to my daughters. &amp;quot;I had been in an eating disorders program before -- I was even hospitalized three years ago -- but I guess getting healthy for myself wasn&amp;#039;t enough motivation. As a mother, I have a responsibility to my daughters to teach them good self-love and self-care.  &amp;quot;I sought help from a therapist, and I am now on the road to recovery. I still struggle, but finally, I&amp;#039;m starting to let myself enjoy food. After all, I have more important things to focus on -- like my beautiful girls.&amp;quot; Being a mom... Inspired Me To Inspire Others  Diane Knorr, 41 Sacramento, CA Mother of Gabriel, 10  &amp;quot;Five years ago, I took my then 5-year-old son, Gabriel, to spend a week on a farm. His face lit up as he splashed around in a big metal tub of water, milked a goat, and stroked a baby chick. Watching him reminded me of how kids really need to just run around and explore. I had lots of those experiences when I was growing up. But I also remember playing in a park that was in front of a children&amp;#039;s home. I was so impacted by the fact that the kids who lived there didn&amp;#039;t have families and didn&amp;#039;t get to do all the things that I could, like swim in a river or go to a baseball game.  &amp;quot;Before adopting my son, I faced years of infertility, so I know that each child is a blessing. But kids in foster homes aren&amp;#039;t always seen that way, and many of them don&amp;#039;t get to experience the simplest joys in life. That&amp;#039;s what I was thinking about as Gabriel and I made our way home from the farm that day. Then all of a sudden I felt an idea spark: I could try to give life&amp;#039;s littlest pleasures to kids who never would experience them otherwise. I ultimately decided to create a mentoring program for kids in foster care.  &amp;quot;I became filled with an excitement I&amp;#039;d never felt in my life. After lots of research, I learned that most mentoring programs are not offered to kids in foster care -- the kids who need support the most since, after already being neglected or abused, they get shuffled from one home to the next, feeling alone no matter where they end up. The more I learned -- I met one foster father whose 10-year-old boy had never tasted a fresh cherry -- the more compelled I felt to make this my mission. I quit my corporate job to start Wonder, Inc., which matches kids in foster care with adults who take them to places like museums, restaurants, and nature parks. I named it Wonder because I wanted to give children experiences that inspire wonder and awe. Now, when I see one of our kids&amp;#039; eyes light up the way Gabriel&amp;#039;s did, I know that&amp;#039;s exactly what we&amp;#039;re doing.&amp;quot; Being a mom... Brought Me Out Of My Shell  Liz Moore, 43 Carson City, NV Mother of Trina, 23, Lara, 21, and Danielle, 19  &amp;quot;Growing up, I was painfully shy; I didn&amp;#039;t join groups or do many activities. But once I had my first child, I realized that I had to stop turning inward. The arrival of each of my daughters slowly built my confidence, and I started doing things I never would have considered before, such as becoming a Girl Scouts troop co-leader and writing children&amp;#039;s stories that I read to a class of second graders. The more I participated, the more self-assured I became. Then, when our family moved to Japan, I decided to climb Mt. Fuji, something that the Japanese consider to be a religious experience. It took me almost a year of training, but finally the day came. I started climbing and got to the summit 12 hours later. I was so proud of myself and remember thinking, I never thought I could do this. It was such an incredible feeling. From that moment on, I figured if I can climb Mt. Fuji, I could do anything -- and it still inspires me to reach new goals. As my daughters were growing up, I was growing up with them, going from being shy and insecure to a woman who climbs mountains -- literally!&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/mom-kids/advice/a1690/motherhood-made-me/>