Our Stories
Meet Adrienne...
My working mom journey began 23 years ago. I am originally from New Jersey, but I have lived in eastern Pennsylvania for the majority of my adult life. I graduated from medical school in May of 1998 and got married one week later. The following month, I began my orthopedic surgery residency and two years later, I became a mom for the first time. My daughter Danielle was born in 2000, and I went back to work six weeks later. My typical work week at that time consisted of up to 100 hours with overnight stays in the hospital when I was on call. I was the only woman in my program and determined not to be the weak link, but also determined to be a great mom.
In 2002, my daughter Kayla was born. I was in the fifth and final year of my residency. I went back to work four weeks later this time and was then faced with the break-up of my marriage four weeks after that. It was a very difficult time in my life, and I could have never handled it without my parents’ help. My mom had already been taking care of the girls while I worked, but after my break-up and ultimate divorce, we all moved in together. We have lived together ever since, and my parents helped me raise my daughters. I am so fortunate and grateful to them.
After residency, I did a one year fellowship and then went into practice. I have now been in practice for 19 years, and while the 100 hour weeks ended a long time ago, my work has continued to be extremely demanding and time consuming. I tried to find a balance between my career and motherhood. My daughters have always been and will always be my top priority. I worked hard for many years in school and post-graduate training to get to where I am as a surgeon, so it was also important to me to succeed in my career. I often struggled with feelings of guilt about being away from my daughters so much of the time, but I always made sure I was available for every school event, field trip, parent-teacher conference and extracurricular activity. I did my best to adjust my work schedule, and I took as much time off as I could so we could do things together.
As my girls grew up and learned more about my career, they understood why I needed to work, and why I often had long days. My daughters are now amazing young adults, and I could not be more proud of them. Even with grown kids, being a working mom can still be a balancing act at times. We juggle three busy schedules with my work, my older daughter's work as a TV news producer in Des Moines and my younger daughter's senior year classes at NYU. Now that they are older, I decided to try something new and found a true passion in ballroom dancing. In 2018, I began taking lessons and competing with my incredible instructor. This involves a fair amount of travel, and the girls join me when they can. We continue to make it work and truly understand the importance of quality time.
I look forward to this next chapter in my life as a business owner, and I hope that all of the skills I have gained over the past 23 years will serve me well now. Lisa and I co-founded this company based on a strong friendship and a strong desire to do something different after many years in healthcare. We are dedicated, goal oriented working moms, and we look forward to connecting with this amazing population of women.