Praying for Anissa

This is Anissa. If you’re meeting her for the first time here, then you are most likely not a mom blogger. If you have not yet met her in person, then you are missing a special moment in your life and I pray that God allows more moments with Anissa for all of us…

Let me share my meeting Anissa story…

In February of this year I travelled to Nashville to speak at the Blissdom Conference. I had never been to a blog conference before, and I was unprepared for being accosted almost immediately upon entering the hotel. Two fellow bloggers recognized me and yelled, “Resourceful Mommy is here!” then ran across the lobby to hug me. It took me awhile to figure out who they were and recover from the fact that they immediately knew me. Eventually I was able to place them, but I was happy that they helped me out.

Later that day I met Anissa. After hours of people saying, “Hey, you might not know me, here’s who I am on Twitter, my avatar is on my business card, I don’t know if you follow me back….” Anissa marched right up to me and said, “Hey, Amy, so great to finally meet you in person!” gave me a big hug, then said, “It’s Anissa, of course.

I didn’t know her. I don’t know how I didn’t know her….but I didn’t. I don’t think I was following her yet on Twitter, and I didn’t read her blog. But after meeting such a dynamic woman, you just don’t admit such a thing, so from that day on, Anissa and I have been friends. I never once said, “Tell me again where you blog…” or “What is your Twitter ID…” I just made sure I knew, because clearly these were things I should know.

This is Anissa. Watch out, world.

I have made Anissa admiring a bit of a past time of mine in the last couple of months. Some time ago we had a little spat over e-mail regarding business, and it immediately went away. This is Anissa. Once that passed I found applauding and supporting Anissa to be even more rewarding than it was before because I saw a side of her that I didn’t know before – the crazy smart business woman side. This is Anissa. Despite the bump in our friendship, seeing her at the Type-A Mom Conference felt exactly the same as seeing her two months before at BlogHer. No hard feelings. No resentment. Just love, fun, sharing. This is Anissa. And I admire her immensely.

Yesterday her husband updated her Facebook status from her bedside in the ICU of an Atlanta hospital. She had suffered a stroke. Anissa and I never talked health. Business, sex, fun, kids…sure. But unloading tons of really personal health information….well, that does not seem to be Anissa.
And now we pray. Please join all of us in the online community, Anissa’s offline friends, her family, as we keep a constant prayer vigil for her and for her husband and three children. If you are able to give more than your prayers, please click the button at the top of this post.

I have one more thing to share for those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Anissa. This picture was taken at BlogHer when Anissa allowed me to temporary tattoo her boobs.
This is Anissa.

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