Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning we get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you. Please read our disclosure for more info.
With an accomplished background as a marketing and business strategist, Tami Gaines has proven how individuals and business owners can achieve success from the inside out. She has been widely recognized as an expert and visionary among national media like The Wall Street Journal and has built an impressive client list that has included The Marriott, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Consumer Reports, Unilever and The Commonwealth of Virginia. With an M.B.A. from Columbia University and 25 years as an entrepreneur and executive, Tami could not have foreseen the events that would take her from the board room to the hospital room.
Tami believes that our will is a renewable resource and it is by sheer will that she was able to thrive during the five months of her life that she found herself: Unexpectedly pregnant with twins; Suddenly single after nearly 12 years of marriage because of the decision to keep them; Confined to a hospital bed for 5 weeks in an effort to maintain the pregnancy; And then an experienced mother in a new reality, fluctuating between prayer and advocacy for the health of the twins, born at only 25 weeks, weighing just over a pound and a half each. Her daughter spent nearly 4 months in the intensive care unit before coming home. Her son spent 15 months in the intensive care unit and 3 months in a rehabilitation facility before finally coming home in late August 2007, technology-dependent yet self-reliant. The twins join their older sister and brother, 10 and 7 years, respectively, in a home that had to be spiritually gutted and rebuilt to allow space for forgiveness of and gratitude to my former husband for leaving so that we could live from a place of faith and self-love.
Tami has used the lessons of her personal and professional journeys to restore her power and gain wholeness again. Developing an intimate connection with the Universe and then giving that connection a voice through the way she lives is her true devotion. She has expressed her truth in the way she gives context to experiences, takes action, makes decisions, in the people she chooses to surround herself with and the energy that she gives out and lets in. Her legacy will be one that empowers people to live their greatest lives, despite any challenge facing them.
At the encouragement of parents, doctors and hospital administrators, Tami has written Preemie Parents, 26 Little Ways to Grow With Your Premature Baby, to help other parents cope as she has — with heart wide open to learning life’s lessons. Both practical and inspirational, Tami has revolutionized the way people experience prematurity, divorce and other unexpected crises. Tami returns power to those who feel powerless as they go through their challenges by reminding them that “the context that we give our experiences is ultimately our defining story.”
“We never know how much power we have within us until we’ve gone through something, that before, we could never conceive of getting through.” — Tami Gaines