It's 8:00 a.m. and I have just woken up in my daughter Abby's dorm room at JMU. I spent the night with her and my 3rd child Hannah, who will also be attending here next year. I feared I would not be able sleep in the dorm. As it turns out I had a mini vacation and I got to sleep in until 8:00 a.m.. Roommate Shelly is sound asleep in her bed and my girls are crashed on the floor. I woke up thinking "what do you want to be when you grow up?" The question is constant here "what dept. are you in, what do you want to do after school? "

When I was young all I wanted to be was a mother. I did not understand why I was expected to go to college. I remember asking my friend that very question, "why are they making me leave home and go to school, when all I want to do is get married and have babies?" Being a good girl, I did do as my parents hoped, and I left for college. I managed to finish 2 years of school before I went to work for a small airline called Presidential Airways. At the time, being a floral designer was far from my mind and not even a notion or an idea.

I married at 21 and had my first child very shortly after we married. Our goal was to try and figure out a way for me to stay at home with the children. During this time I was creating floral arrangements from my property and people began to ask me if I would do their wedding flowers.  In truth I had no idea about designing for a wedding, but I did have an inherited love and passion for flowers that my parents had passed on to me. My parents owned Heiders Nursery which was an amazing garden center. I had grown up in a family owned, home based business and I had always been surrounded by flowers. In fact Daddy still has a little garden center in Lucketts today called Heider Farm Market. It turns out that my destiny or my career found me and it's clearly in my blood. Today my husband and I are raising 7 children and I get to work at home and be with our kids. When I look back to my youth, I did not know where I was going, or how I was going to get there, but I was always certain with hard work and integrity I would find my way. Considering I could not answer the question "what are you going to be when you grow up?"  each little success is an added huge pleasure. In The last four months alone, we have been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Washingtonian Bride & Groom, Brides Magazine, The Knot, Southern Living Weddings, Get Married Magazine, Loudoun Magazine, and most recently in I Am Modern.  As my girls lay sleeping on the floor, I can't help but wonder what they will be when they grow up, but I have faith they will get where they need to get, and that some little seed is waiting inside of them to bloom.


 Here is my feature in I Am Modern.

 

 

HC