Jill Jacks-Tate is currently being held hostage in Columbus, Nebraska by her husband and six children. After roughly a zillion years as a stay at home mom, Jill is branching out into writing and public speaking. Jill's family of captors provides plenty of material for her humor. Her six children range in age from 6 to 18 years old and are both biological and internationally adopted; or as Jill says, homemade and imported.
She has great kids but the absolute worst travel luck. Not a good combination if you have to fly over the pond to get your children. She has been stranded in several Eastern European countries, had a bomb accidentally dropped on the city she was trying to leave, been flown to the wrong city and bussed across the whole country at night through snowy mountains. She more often arrives without luggage than she does with luggage.
Jill and her husband, Rick, own a drain cleaning company called The Drain Surgeon. Rick cleans out pipes and Jill is full of crap. It all works out.
In 1998, she founded Bright Futures Adoption Assistance Foundation. In the years since, Bright Futures has helped many children have a better life by raising funds to grant to adopting families, remodeling orphanage kitchens (she just can't help but redecorate every where she goes!) and donating aid to needy orphanages worldwide. Mostly Jill founded Bright Futures so that others could afford to adopt children and she wouldn't have to bring them all home herself.
When she found that she had three extra minutes in every day, Jill sought out more ways to volunteer in her community. She recently completed a 2 year stint as president of the local Big Pals - Little Pals, a mentoring program and is currently in her third year on SEAC (Special Education Advisory Committee) for the Nebraska Department of Education. She thought she was asked to be on the board as the comic relief but as it turns out, the joke was on her when they elected her as the board Chair.
Jill's weekly column appears each Friday in the Columbus Telegram. If you'd like to see Jill in person she appears each morning from 5 am to 11 am at the Latte Lizard where she will fix you up right with some fabulous java! Drive through and say hello if you are in Columbus, Nebraska.