People named Jen fill my life. There’s our son’s birth mom, there’s a friend from church, and there’s another friend who used to cut my hair. Then there’s the Jenn our family affectionately refers to as “two-n Jenn.”
Jenn Doucette is my neighbor, my writing buddy, my writers’ conference roommate, and an all-around great friend. She’s the kind of friend I can call at 10 p.m. (or even midnight) to vent. She’s the kind of friend who zips over to my house when she’s in her jammies to admire the cover of my soon-to-be-released book. Jenn and I celebrate one another’s successes, large and small. I’m honored to feature an interview with Jenn, whose book, Mama
Said There’d Be Days Like This, was just released.
In the intro to Mama Said…, Jenn admits that she often feels like the Gingerbread Man—“that I’m running as fast as I can, being pursued by things—and people—that threaten to consume me: Cooking, Cleaning, Carpooling. Every time the phone rings, I know intuitively that it’s another event for which I will be asked to administrate, coordinate, decorate, or at the very least, contribute a potato salad and a five dollar check.”
Sound familiar? If so, you’re going to love Jenn’s book, which is geared for moms on the run. Like 
her first book, The Velveteen Mommy, this book is a humorous, encouraging “breather” from mommy mania. In Mama Said…, Jen introduces12 strategies—which she calls rest stops—that will encourage worn out, burned out, pooped out moms.
I asked Jenn a couple of questions about her book:
In what ways is your book adoption-friendly? Will adoptive moms enjoy it, or is it intended mainly for moms who give birth to their children?
Jenn Doucette: It’s funny, but I don’t categorize mothers as either being “adoptive moms” or “birth moms” when I’m writing. A mom is a mom is a mom is a mom, in my opinion. Any mother who has locked herself in the bathroom to finish up an important phone call or who has fished around her mini-van for a stray granola bar, or who has found herself dusting with a dirty old gym sock can relate to my book. Exhaustion, fatigue, and carpooling know no boundaries. We’re all in this together, kid!
In one chapter, you recommend “retail therapy.” Why do you consider retail therapy a good thing, and what limits, if any, should a mom put on it?
Did my husband put you up to that question…?
For clarification, the chapter where I mention “retail therapy” focuses on redefining beauty; I believe our culture puts too much emphasis on the externals, and motherhood tends to age our (ahem) externals whether we like it or not. But God made us in His image – we’re beautiful to Him! By redefining the term “beauty” to include our freckles, laugh lines, and (gulp) stretch marks, we are free to be who we are. Self-controlled Retail Therapy can be a fun way to complement our God-given beauty. As long as our spending isn’t in excess, and our spouse doesn’t have heart failure when presented with the bill, retail therapy is a fun way to celebrate being a girl.
Since Jenn lives two blocks away from me as the crow flies, I felt compelled to ask her a couple of questions that will give you some insights into Jenn, the person:
What kind of person plants a regulation-sized flagpole in her front yard and flies a U.S. flag from it (I’ve spotted a University of Washington flag hanging there on occasion, too).
A really, really, really cool person.
What kind of flagpole-planting person sends her children to public school?
The kind who desires to live in the world, but not of it. The kind who knows that the pain of separation with her children when they eventually move out would be too painful if she didn’t practice it every morning at the bus stop. The kind of person who has a job as a writer and wouldn’t get anything done if her children were home interrupting every three minutes to ask a question about interesting things like muskrat migration, the rate of chewing gum digestion, or where astronauts go to the bathroom.
Here are some questions from one of Jenn’s admirers, who asked to remain anonymous. I called Jenn right before posting this interview to ask her these:
Is that your REAL hair color?
Some of it is.
How much do you weigh?
Ten pounds less than I did three months ago (while Jenn answered this question, I heard...
crunch, crunch, crunch…and she admitted, “I’m eating Cheetos”).
And one final question from me:
Who’s your favorite writers’ conference roommate, and why?
Aha. I see how this works.
My absolute favorite writers’ conference roomie is most definitely . . . Laura Christianson, because she lets me have the bigger bed when I win the coin toss even though the room is actually hers in the first place because she’s on staff at the conference.
Good answer, Jenn!
Visit Jenn’s blog: http://jenndoucette.blog-city.com/
Read my review of The Velveteen Mommy
Purchase Jenn's books from my Exploring
Adoption bookstore
For news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com
