What marked this year most for you?

"Highlight?  Turning in a book manuscript 11 days after giving birth!  I know that sounds crazy, but both projects were so important and meaningful to me, and having them both come to fruition at the same point reminded me how blessed I am to have a full life."

– Laura Vanderkam

"Although work was busy and challenging this year, my brightest moments this year came at home when my son starting really walking on his own (although doctors thought he may never walk) and last week (at three years old), he said ‘ma ma’ for the first time.  My little guy has developmental delays and works so hard for everything he has achieved.  I’m just so proud of him and all the progress he has made this year."

– Colleen Parker

"2009 was a year filled with hope and promise despite itself.  The inauguration marked the beginning of a new era for our country and I was filled with hope at the promise of change.  Just one day after the inauguration, I found out my company was up for sale.  Two weeks after the inauguration I was taking a pregnancy test and learned I was expecting my third child.  The next week my company filed for bankruptcy and for the next eight weeks I wished for a knight on a white horse to snatch up the company and save the day.  I watched friends and co-workers lose their jobs while I waited for my turn.  I counted each one of those days on a separate calendar, hoping that my baby was okay and I could share the news with my family at the end of my first trimester.  My job ended the same day my first trimester was safely completed.  Instead of wallowing in misery I was able to share happy news and the hope of a new one in our family.  A month later an amnio confirmed our baby was healthy, and for the first time we would be adding a "she" to our family’s vocabulary.  For the last nine months I have gotten to spend time with my two boys and deliver a healthy baby girl.  Thirteen weeks into new parenthood, we are getting some decent sleep, celebrating the holidays, I am actively interviewing … and still very much filled with hope."

– Patty Gormley

And our own little highlight…

When you run an organization-website-community "on the side," it has the inadvertent side effect of eliciting angst and self-recriminations for all the things you AREN’T doing with it, all the people you aren’t touching or helping more.  And then just the other day we were graced with a little reminder of the power of even the concept of Executive Moms.  We welcomed our first member from Vietnam (that alone was a pretty momentous highlight).  And she in turn wrote to us soon after to say Executive Moms has inspired her to create a network for Vietnamese women in business.  She’s working on the project plan now.  We say: Go Hai Nguyen! …

She reaffirmed our new year’s wish, which is that we can all continue to find plenty of hope, humor, and most of all inspiration, from one another.